Discipline for the Race
What does discipline mean to you? Does it mean being spanked or put in time out? Does it mean correction? Mike associated it with correction for most of his life. He considers discipline a thing to be avoided. And he said he created a problem for himself going forward.
Do you know people who seem to exercise discipline or self-control better than others? Discipline and self-control come down to knowing what we want. Our world constantly tries to distract us. In fact, the world, our flesh and the devil all try to distract us. We think we want to gamble or eat an extra dessert. But we really want to save money for something more important or we really want to be healthy.
Paul reminds us we only live once. Like someone who competes in the games, we don’t want to take our one chance for granted. When Mike was younger, he always thought he would get another shot. But now that he’s north of 60, it’s harder to learn discipline. He doesn’t have the habits in place. He hasn’t trained himself. As we get older, it’s harder to create new habits. Our old ways are more set.
Let’s discipline ourselves a bit more today. Ask God to show you a tradeoff you can make simply because you follow him. Maybe you can invest some energy in helping a coworker. Or buy someone’s lunch. Your stuff won’t stick around anyway. Invest some of your resources in eternity, by serving others and showing appreciation for others. How you run your race matters. We don’t want to finish the race and find we’ve been disqualified. When we pray and ask God to direct us, he will give us opportunities to do our job better, or to help others more. Both activities are important. How we live our life matters. Take some time today to practice walking with Jesus and letting him make a difference through you.
Why not make a commitment. Head over to MarketplaceMissionTrip.com and sign up for our next Marketplace Mission Trip. You’ll have 2 weeks to practice the discipline. But it’s not all work. Most who have taken this “trip” enjoy their relationship with Jesus more, and they commit to keep it going. Click the link and head over to check it out.
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