Discipline

Discipline isn't a fun word and yet we are all subject to disciplines as a part of the way things are.

If we eat more calories than we expend we will gain weight. In order to change that we have to be disciplined in both exercise and diet. No surprise here. In the spiritual life there are disciplines also.

First there is the discipline of taking time for God. Daniel, as the Daniel who got thrown in the lion's den, took time to pray three times a day to his God. It was this discipline of prayer that got him in trouble because the king had ordered that all must bow down to a gold image of himself.

Daniel was disciplined in his priorities. He knew that God came first...no matter what. And yes, the lions didn't gobble him up because God shut the mouth of the lions. Instead Daniel's accusers were "lunch" for the lions before they hit the bottom of the pit.

Having a strong position of trust in God isn't something that just comes in a day. It comes as there are some very trying circumstances in our life THAT CAN ONLY BE SOLVED BY GOD.

I'd like to say that I am disciplined to trust like Daniel but I have a ways to go. Do you have something you really don't like to do but God has you in the discipline of doing it now.

Maybe it is a job that you know is going to end and you get paid but have no satisfaction.

Maybe it is a season of discipline in the financial area. Many of us are learning to cut way, way back on expenditures. We just need to be careful. In fact, there is so much poverty here in America including 22% in children, that I hope we are starting to wake up to the needs under our feet.

In learning a new sport there is discipline. The great tennis player didn't just emerge. There had been countless hours of practice behind that beautiful win.

Let us not be discouraged in well doing because we are getting stronger in that direction. God knows how much discipline each of us needs and His discipline is for our good and for giving us a future and a hope.