Scripture Reference 

1 Timothy 4:8, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Romans 12:12

Basic Training Principle

1. Prayer: One on one time with God and Prayer with and for others. 

Don Whitney, the Professor of Biblical Spirituality and Associate Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.  Says Now the goal of practicing any given discipline is not about doing as much as it is about being: being like Jesus, being with Jesus. But the biblical way to grow in being more like Jesus is through the rightly motivated doing of the biblical, spiritual disciplines.

The key verse in all this is 1 Timothy 4:7, which says, "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness" (NASB). The goal is godliness, but the biblical means to that is to discipline yourself by the power of the Holy Spirit rightly motivated. We are to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. The practical ways of doing that are things that you do.