THE LAW OF DISCIPLINE 1
Proverbs 12:1-6
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. No matter what your goal is in life, whether you are pursuing success in career or ministry, discipline is something that you need to take you to that point where you will be considered to be successful. Without discipline, there’s no life at all. Self-discipline is defined as the ability to control yourself and to work hard or behave in a particular way without needing anyone else to tell you what to do. No matter the worth of a person or how gifted he/she is, without self-discipline, that person will never attain his or her maximum potential.
Most of the instability and recklessness that we see in the lives of Christians today can be traced to an undisciplined life. A disciplined person avoids certain behaviours and embraces best practices like financial disciplines of saving and investing money rather than spending it; physical disciplines (exercise and healthy eating); spiritual disciplines such as prayer, reading and meditation of God’s Word.
Chief among the challenges of an undisciplined life is time wasting. If you must lead a life that would lead to success, you must value time. Time is a commodity that is available to everyone in equal measure but yield profit to us in different measure. Some gain from utilization of time while some others don’t get anything out of the 24hours available to them on daily basis. If you are disciplined in time management, you will never allow anyone waste your time on frivolous and meaningless stuff. A disciplined life is a life that values timing. Never go late to meetings, whether church meetings or other appointments. It speaks a lot about you. Many people have missed valuable opportunities because they were not mindful of time.
Apostle Paul said: “All things are lawful for me; but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food; but God will (one day) do away with both of them…The body is for the Lord” (1 Cor.6:12,13). This is a call to discipline. Not all things are lawful. This is why it is important to take caution in whatever you do. This scripture is clear about what our attitude should be towards food. You must conquer food. Eating is not a sin but we must not allow our life to be controlled by it. It is not everywhere you go that you eat. It is not everything that you are presented with that you eat. Personal control is important. Don’t do anything in excess. Other self-disciplines that a Christian must imbibe is rejecting those things that are demeaning of our Christian values such as sexual promiscuity, alcohol, social media addictions, etc.
MEDITATION: An undisplined life is like a city without walls.
