Intentional spiritual growth

Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life… and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God… (Ephesians 4:22,24 ESV)

 In order to become more Christlike, to live more kingdom-centered lives, we need to put in effort to align our lives, decisions, actions, and spirit with God and His Word. Doing so means “putting off” some aspects of ourselves and our character, and “putting on” aspects of Christlikeness.
 Once one has put in the time and effort to train, to break old habits, and to build new ones, then “putting off” the negatives and “putting on” the positives becomes more natural, as we are gradually changed by the Holy Spirit. Of course, this isn’t something we can do on our own, without God’s help or grace—we most certainly can’t. But neither can we expect the Holy Spirit to change us without any effort or action on our part.
 They have to do with intentional spiritual growth, with the development of Christian character, which, like any kind of training, involves disciplining oneself to do certain things in a certain way.
 It means cultivating the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As we do our part to raise the sails, we grow in Christlikeness. - Peter Amsterdam [1]

 We are the sailors, needing to raise the sail; that is, to do something that puts us in the position to catch God’s Spirit, so that the Spirit will move us along toward the desired destination - Michael A. Zigarelli

[1] Anchor Raising Our Sails