Week 5
Discipline
“Therefore I run
in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air;
but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached
to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” – 1 Corinthians 9:26,27
Paul’s words are piercing. He makes
it clear that each step he takes is utterly intentional. No breath he breathes
goes without recognition. No word he speaks is without meaning. No move of his
is wasted.
Discipline, at times, might be hard
to swallow. Depending on our personal experiences, the thought of discipline
could exhaust us, terrify us, or exhilarate us! But with God – ALL discipline
is necessary. Whether it is Him punishing us for something we have done, or Him
allowing us to experience difficult things in order to strengthen and grow us –
He uses every aspect of it to perfect us and bring us closer to Him.
But discipline is hard work. It’s long hours and
dedication. It’s learning the same lesson over and over again until you get it
right. It often comes with restless nights and exhausting days. It’s being
aware of every sinful detail in our lives and asking God to keep doing what He
needs to do in order to perfect us and make us more like Him. It is living each
day intentionally and never allowing ourselves to lose sight of why we are
putting in all this work in the first place. And it is persevering PAST our
emotions – true discipline recognizes only what is GOOD for us – and not only
in that moment – but for eternity.
Godly
discipline is the key to the Christian faith. It is the means to genuine change
and the only thing that allows us to be able to truly identify ourselves with
Christ. Without it – we would never experience, or even understand, the type of
relationship that God yearns for us to have with Him.
What is
discipline to you?
What is the
difference between godly discipline
and worldly (or ungodly) discipline?
What does the bible say about discipline?
Disciplining
ourselves:
Proverbs
4:23-27 “Above all else, guard your heart, for
everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for
your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or
the left; keep your foot from evil.”
James 1:12 “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he
has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has
promised to those who love Him.”
James 1:26 “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not
bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is
worthless.”
We are ALL
slaves to SOMETHING:
Romans 6:5-7
“For
if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death,
certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing
this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body
of sin might be done away with, so
that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed
from sin.”
“’I have been crucified with Christ…’
(Galatians 2:20). The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to
sign the death certificate of our sin nature. I must take my emotional opinions
and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict
against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to
myself. Paul said, ‘I have been crucified with Christ…’ He did not say, ‘I have
made a determination to imitate Jesus Christ,’ or, ‘I will really make an
effort to follow Him’-but-‘I have been identified with Him in His death.’” –
Oswald Chambers
We need to
discipline ourselves to not “flirt” with sin. Christ does not say to sin
“littler” He says to not sin AT ALL.
When I
closed the door (literally) on my unhealthy relationship – I knew that had to
be it. It had to be. I couldn’t flirt with it anymore – not that I wanted to –
since it had gotten to a point where the effects of it were way past toxic and
corruptive. But I knew that my “no” had
to mean no. FOR GOOD. I couldn’t
allow any emotions or hurt or insecurities or loneliness get in the way of what
I knew needed to be done.
This is a
rare case for me. Rare in the sense that – I actually didn’t feel like I wanted to go back at all…but
I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. It wasn’t just that I couldn’t flirt with the idea of returning to THAT
relationship – it was the fact that I couldn’t flirt with the idea of going to any relationship. I couldn’t put myself in a vulnerable situation.
No rebound – no close friendships with guys – no more looking for “security” in
the wrong places. No dwelling, obsessing, fantasizing or daydreaming. No. No. NO.
I had to
give my heart 100% to God. I knew that there was going to come a day where he
was going to find someone new and I didn’t want my heart to feel an ounce of
rejection, hurt or betrayal. I wanted to
belong to God.
Maybe the
idea of “casually dating around” is okay for some people. Maybe for some people
it is harmless…but for me – it is just not possible. And the older I get – the
more I LOVE that about myself. But when I was younger – I hated it. I idealized
people who could “date around” and never seemed to be affected by it. And my
desire to be like those people is what started to turn me into someone I never
wanted to be. It started to ruin me. That is how I ended up in what seemed to
start off as a “harmless” relationship – but quickly turned into the most destructive relationship I had
ever witnessed first hand. I had to make the decision to die to that part of
myself which yearned to be able to have “harmless” relationships like so many
other people I knew. I had to trust in who God made me – and trust in Him.
Just because something is not
“wrong” does not mean it is not “wrong for us”. Seek God and listen to what HE
wants for you, not what you want for you. Read your bible! Pray! Seek God! Know
what He says is RIGHT for YOU!
James 1:5-8 “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all
generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But
he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the
surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to
expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a
double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
We need to make the decision: Are we going to allow our sin to rule
us, or are we going to be determined to have sin die in our lives.
The greatest
commandment:
Matthew 22:34-38: “But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced
the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked
Him a question, testing Him, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in
the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the
great and foremost commandment.”
Which is more difficult to control? Your heart, your mind, or your
strength?
We cannot control any of
these things if we are not looking towards the ONE who created them.
When should we practice discipline?
Christ says
to pick up our cross DAILY!!
Luke 9:23 “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to
come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow
Me.’”
DAILY!!! Not
once a week…or once a month…or once a year…or every other holiday…or when we
feel like it…or when we don’t feel like it. He says to do it DAILY! Because He
knows that our struggles are DAILY. Each day is filled with countless
distractions and we are constantly under attack. Satan NEVER forgets OUR
purpose…and neither should we!!!
Satan
will use whatever he can to slow us down and hold us back. But with God, no
opportunity is wasted. No chance for growth is overlooked. And no struggle we
face is unnecessary.
Discipline is persevering when we no longer have the feelings from the “mountaintop”. (Luke 9:28-36)
Godly Discipline
God
disciplines us because He LOVES us
Hebrews
12:1-13:
· Christ is our example
· Sin entangles
and distracts us
· God disciplines us out of love
Proverbs 3:12 “For whom the LORD loves He reproves,
Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.”
· God desires
for us to share His holiness
· Discipline yields righteousness
We are NOT alone!! Christ INTERCEDES FOR US!!! He PRAYS for US!!
Romans 8:34 “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus
who died – more than that, who raised to life - is at the right hand of God and
is also interceding for us.”
Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw
near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
What are
some ways that we can apply discipline in our lives…
For me –
there are sooo many ways. Some times I become overwhelmed when I think about
how perfect I am not and how much work I have to do…but that is when I remember
that God loves me just as I am. It
is because of that that I should want
to change and make change happen.
I am usually
the person who has to “learn the hard way” – but that relationship was an utter
extreme. We shouldn’t have to get that far before we turn around. We
should be walking with Christ daily
so that we never have to turn around…veer back on the path, maybe…but never
have to do a 180.
Learning who
we are and how God has created us is vital to our growth and change. Some times
it’s not fun – but asking God to reveal in us what He sees we need to work on,
is the only way we can start the process. For example, I have learned that I am
an extremely emotional person – and I allow myself to get attached to people
pretty easily – and because of this, I am able to set healthy (and sometimes
extreme) boundaries for myself when it comes to relationships and
friendships…because I know that I tend to put people in God’s place far too
easily – and I don’t want to do that. Every move I did and did not make had to be intentional – I had to “run in such a
way, as not without aim” I had to “box in such a way, as not beating the air”
and I had to “discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have
preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” Every move and lack-there-of had to count. I couldn’t no longer be
this careless child jumping in and out of reckless situations – because what
seemed innocent slowly tore away more and more of who I was…and if it weren’t for
the grace of God – I probably wouldn’t be here today.
Ask God to
show you what you need to work on. Even if it is just one thing at a time.
“…Do it quickly—
bring yourself to judgment now. In moral and spiritual matters, you must act
immediately. If you don’t, the inevitable, relentless process will begin to
work. God is determined to have His child as pure, clean, and white as driven
snow, and as long as there is disobedience in any point of His teaching, He
will allow His Spirit to use whatever process it may take to bring us to
obedience. The fact that we insist on proving that we are right is almost
always a clear indication that we have some point of disobedience. No wonder
the Spirit of God so strongly urges us to stay steadfastly in the light!
(see John 3:19-21).”
– Oswald Chambers
