DISCIPLINE
Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever (1 Timothy 4:7-8).
The key to a successful, prosperous life is discipline. Paul emphasized the importance of discipline in almost every letter he wrote. In the Book of Acts he said, “I always exercise and discipline myself…to have a clear (unshaken, blameless) conscience, void of offense toward God and toward men” (Acts 24:16 AMP). Paul wrote Timothy declaring: “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Tim. 1:7 NLT).
Peter also wrote about discipline:
“So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with…alert discipline” (2 Pet. 1:5).
A disciplined life in God will produce the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and selfcontrol” (Gal. 5:22-23 NLT). Discipline will empower you to become and to do the extraordinary.
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts. —Aristotle
ACTION STEPS
- How do we exercise a disciplined life in God?
- Paul said the discipline of God is not so much about what we choose not to do, but more about what we choose to do. Make a list of things you can actively choose to do for God.
- Discipline starts in the mind. For every negative thought or negative word you think or speak today, commit to give $1.00 to a charity of your choice.
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