God Blesses Discipline
1 Corinthians 9:27 (NLT)
“I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I might be disqualified”.
Discipline is something we all are familiar with in many areas of our life. To make it in the military a young person must learn discipline. Sports is another area of our life that discipline pays off. Growing up in Indiana, I played a lot of basketball. It is a sport that takes a lot of discipline and practice. I spent many hours in our driveway shooting free-throws and taking jump-shots and practicing my ball-handling drills. In the winter months my brother and I would shovel the snow off the driveway to give us a area to play basketball. My dad loved coming home from work seeing his boys and some neighborhood boys playing 3 on 3 in the driveway. He would say, if his boys were home playing basketball in the driveway then they weren’t out getting into trouble. (Wise man)
Discipline is used in whatever profession you follow. Nurses need to have discipline to keep their skills and training up to take care of patients. Teachers need to be disciplined to prepare each day to teach their students. An IT guy like me had to keep up on technology to make my skills valuable to the customers. All of these are professions that need discipline to keep up with their professions.
Discipline is also used in our Christian life. God’s Word tells us that as believers, we are called to lead lives of discipline, diligence, moderation, and maturity. However, we live in a world that temps us to behave in undisciplined ways that are displeasing to God. The world glamorizes a lifestyle that seeks the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, which is not of the Father but is of the world.
God rewards diligence and righteousness and the discipline of living a life pleasing to God every day. Discipline is doing it every day, and diligence is doing it well every day. In 1 Timothy, he tells us that to live a life that is righteous we need discipline.
1 Timothy 4:7
Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.
Pray that God helps is to live for Him faithfully today and every day.
