No matter what field of activity you think of, success depends upon discipline. Whether it be sport or weight loss, gardening or performing, graduating or driving, running a business or being an employee, nothing worthwhile is accomplished without discipline. Yet discipline is irksome. We dodge it if we can. We have to have sufficient motivation to be prepared to accept it. Only self-discipline is effective. Discipline imposed by another can only be effective when it becomes internalised.
As with everything else then, success in living the way God wants us to live requires discipline. Mark 9: 42-48 spells this out in a vivid and dramatic way. People don’t just drift into the kingdom of God. There is a constant bias toward selfishness and sin that has to be overcome. We have to take deliberate action to curb the impulses working against God’s ways of generous love. Of course this does not contradict the gospel of God’s grace. We are accepted, we are reconciled by grace, but we are called to live life within that acceptance and reconciliation.
This is where discipline comes in – the discipline to cut out that which gets in the road of living Christ’s way, the self- discipline that voluntarily places restrictions on our wants and desires. But that runs counter to the mood of the day. Voices around us are urging us to get rid of inhibitions. However if the motivation is strong enough people will accept discipline. To gain their objective they are prepared to place themselves under a coach or tutor and undergo a strict training regime. Love is the motivator for Christian self-discipline – love for God and love for other people. The Holy Spirit is the instigator of Christ-like love.
Grace and Peace.
(This message was quoted from ‘The Upper Room’)
