Spiritual Discipline

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul” (Psalm 19:11).

We live in an undisciplined age. The old disciplines are breaking down. Today the discipline of divine grace is derided as legalism by those who are not disciplined. We have an illiterate generation that is not steeped in the Scriptures or the very truth of God. Without this rugged strength of Christian character that originates from the discipline of grace and Scripture we will continue to fall on hard times.

There must be direction given to the soul of a man if he is to succeed in this life and be rewarded in the future. Prayer threatens to be a drudgery but if one looks into the future and views prayer accomplishments, we would pray with discipline. Meditation on Scripture is certain but we treat it as if it is not important in our lives then we fail to know the ways of God.

Sunday is a day to come back with the people of God under the Word of God and yet when we treat it as an unworthy discipline then we will fail to glean the benefits of assembling with one another. God is looking for men and women in whom He can trust to wield His presence and power in and through and for a lost people who need to know there is a true God.

It is crucial to see the Lord in these days for without holiness no one can see Him. This generation is lost. The god of this age has blinded their minds and we can become obstructions to God instead of stepping stones that lead to Him. Godliness is God’s goal for you and for me. Live a life of discipline and count upon the future to be kind as God shapes you into one of His own.

Similar Posts

  • Terminal

    “Return, and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will heal thee. On the third day thou shalt go up into the house of the Lord” (2 Kings 20:5).

    Hezekiah, the king, the captain of God’s people, was a godly man but he had great troubles heaped upon him. His country was under siege and he was deathly sick. National crisis is bad enough but to have a personal crisis is trouble piled high.

    What do you do? He turned to the Lord with tears and used the means God had given him for healing. Sometimes God will alter things in His universe just to meet our needs. Sometimes God heals on earth and other times He heals in glory.

    Friend, we do not know when we will die, but we do know we will. It is up to us to live and to live well in the power of the Spirit of the living God. To live in lethargy, complacency, or self-sufficiency, is to live with the threat of settling down in a world that is cursed with sin and death.

    This is not God’s best. God’s best is to allow our needs to continually drive us to Him upon our knees and for each of us to stay close to Him. Let your troubles drive you to Christ. This is the power of the third day. And by the way, we are all terminal, for we do not know when or where, but we do know we will not live forever in this body of clay.

  • Wrestling in Prayer

    “A man wrestled with him till daybreak” (Genesis 32:24).

    Who is doing the praying? Is it our determined hearts, or the Holy Spirit? If prayer originates with the Holy Spirit, then the wrestling can be beautiful and wonderful. But if we are the victims of our own overheated wants and desires, our praying can be as carnal as any other Christian act.

    God’s way is the best way. Our way is fraught with selfish intentions. We need to ask God to give us pure motives whenever we pray to Him. Jacob’s wrestling with God was carnal until he gave in to God’s will. After he was beaten upon, he cried, “I will not let you go unless you bless me!” Only the Spirit can pray effectively. Let us depend upon Him.

     

     

     

  • Influencers Who Refuse to be Influenced

    “You are here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage” (Matthew 5:13, The Message).

    You know that salt seasons and stings. When you go to the movie theatre and order a drink you have to get popcorn and you want it seasoned with salt and butter, lots of it. It just makes all things taste better. Then you chase it down with an extra-large Coke that you pay too much for that cost them pennies on the dollar.

    You also are aware that salt stings. If you step into the ocean water after a scratch or cut to your body, you realize quickly that you do not have to go far into the shallow water before you wince with pain. It burns and it truly stings.

    You and I are to thirst after God. We are to craft our lives in such a way that our thoughts, our habits, our actions and reactions make people who know us simply crave God. We are salt in a dying society.

    Even if others do not want our God, our lives will cause others to feel the sting inwardly of rejecting the One who loves them. If you live for the Lord Jesus you will encounter those who do not appreciate those who live and tell the truth. It is a stinging rebuke to their godless life, and inside, they wince in pain.

    We are called to be salt – and not sugar! – in our world. We are called to season and to sting. It is good to be in a big salt shaker known as sanctuaries, huddled in fear of a big, bad world. But salty people do not need seasoning! It’s the ones who are headed to Hell who need to know there is a God who lives in us. It’s the blind who need seeing! We are not to be the bland leading the bland.

  • Are You “THERE”?

    “And the word of the Lord came unto him {Elijah}, saying, Get thee hence and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the Ravens to feed thee THERE…” (I Kings 17:2-4).
    If Elijah had rambled here and around I do not believe that Elijah would have had God’s provision. “THERE” was the place of God’s will for Elijah. The ravens were sent to the brook Cherith, and no where else.

    God has a “THERE” for you and me. There is somewhere He wants us to be, something He wants us to do. True joy and happiness has to be where He wants you. We can not please God anywhere but “there.”

    We can do many lovely things and become a “success,” but always there will be the haunting sense of having chosen life’s second best. If we miss the approval of God, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, we shall feel at the close of the day the attitude of giving all of our earthly awards and crowns for the one we missed.

    “THERE” is the place of God’s abundant power and marvelous provision. Are we “THERE”?

  • Wealth: Is It Worth It? 

    “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt” (Ecclesiastes 5:13).

    There have been many that have made it big with their money. They have worked hard and spoke loudly of the way they live by the money they make. Maybe the words aren’t loud, but the spending is.

    After a certain amount of time the money flows and the items are bought and the road continues…until. It looks as if all is going well. Then it happens. Darkness falls. The children grow up. The dad and mom have done so much together, but the grave calls.

    Now the children are seated in a funeral home, alongside their dad. The mom is gone. The aged father is not thinking of their gain. The hurt is very real. Time is gone and nothing seems the same. The things accrued, the times spent, are a distant memory. What are we to do to ensure we feel fulfilled and contented when the time comes and death beckons?

    Wealth is given by God so that we can give it to others. Children and others need to understand that dad and mom love God more than they love money. Who gives the money anyway? Who gives the ability to earn? Who owns it all? Is it not the God that gave His only Son?

    We need to own the needs around us and toward distant lands, and distribute that wealth to help others into the kingdom of God. There is “A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away” (Ecclesiastes 3:6). God in his sovereignty has allowed us the choice. Through our disobedience we bring forth sin into the world, and death by sin (Romans 5:12).

    There are way too many memorial services which are empty and void. Why? Because most lived for gain and not for giving.  It is an emptiness that does betray the soul. Why? Because money and stuff can never fill the soul. But that which is given does. Whether rich or poor may we give away that which is not ours to keep.  Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. And he has his reward.

     

  • Bitterness

    “Let all bitterness…be put away from you” (Ephesians 4:31).

       Bitterness is often called righteous indignation. It demands one’s rights. It is a dark, debilitating, deadening disease. It will kill you and it will kill others.

         Many of us, as James Mallory says, have an “emotional hall of injustice,” and we like to visit it often. We like to polish the statues of those who hurt us. We like to  mull over all of those incidents where we were treated unfairly and unjustly. We don’t say it but many times we are really upset at God.

          This must be rejected. By the act of the will, a child of God must turn from this great sin. We need to turn to God and confess it is a reality in our lives. When you go to God in prayer take those who are on your hit list, those who make you angry and bitter, take those things which have come into your life, and allow the God of glory to teach you through it. You will see yourself and you will see God.