Every Christian must establish a personal set of daily goals in order to reach a higher level of spirituality. The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:5-8 to give diligence in adding moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love to your faith. These marks become the central focus of a Christian’s everyday life. Finis Dakes calls it “spiritual arithmetic.” I like to call it “spiritual inclination.” We must set our minds on heavenly thoughts and remove our hearts from worthlessness.

Life is to be lived rather than endured. Our obligations are work, work, and more work. Must I remind you of the famous phrase, “hard work pays off?” Employment is essential to happiness. Believe me when I say that the unhappiest are those who have nothing to do but have a good time. Serving God is a full-time job. It’s a commandment and it’s a necessity. Jesus says in Revelation 22:12, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according to what work he hath done.”

Another self help is to remember this—we should be content with what we have but not with where we are. Paul says, “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am” (Phil. 4:11). But Paul was not content with himself. He said so earlier in the same letter. He stated, “Brethren, I do not count myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:13-14).

A constant examination of ourselves is a necessity. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!….” Each day we should pull back the curtains in our lives and ask God, “have I done anything today that I shouldn’t have done, or is there anything I left undone that I should have done?” This suggestion can guard us from egotism and put us in a fitting condition of humility. Day in and day out we will face the temptation of spiritual laziness. But I guarantee, if you continue in your work, momentum will follow. Make yourself fit to live with. “For bodily exercise is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things” (1 Tim. 4:8). Exercising every part of godliness is the only way to create a proportioned and balanced spiritual body. Putting little effort towards these things will result in stress, discouragement, depression and an end result of failure. Placing a concern in your life for spiritual inclination is where this process of growth begins.

We will all have our yesterdays—times where we feel unprofitable, but living in the present is the only way to really live. We cannot live yesterday, for it is past; neither can we live tomorrow, for it has not come. In other words, we can only live one day at a time. This does not encourage slothfulness, for the best preparation any person can make for the future is to do well what needs to be done today. Living each day as if it were your last can put the carrot in your eye’s sight.

The great word of the bible is “today.” “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘today’” (Heb. 3:13). As Paul also says, today “is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). “Yesterday is gone and gone forever; tomorrow may never come; so today is all man has” (Leroy Brownlow). Set the goal in your life to reach the up most heights and you will reach a higher ground.