The Place of Personal Discipline

I was reminded this morning of a time when God grabbed me by my ankles and shook me loose of everything that I held onto so tightly.

About 5 years ago I was serving at a church working with students. In the summer of 2005 I took a small group of young men through a little book that turned out to have huge implications on all of our lives. Jerry Bridges' "The Pursuit Of Holiness" is a book that God used to begin in me a process that pushed me to the Scriptures and made me more aware of my own depravity and need for the mercy and grace of Jesus. The beginning of a season of change and re-working (so to speak) in my life.

As I sat on the couch at my brother's house this morning, with my belly full of pancakes, I picked this book up off of his end table and turned to chapter 10, "The Place of Personal Discipline".

1 Timothy 4:7 - Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness...

This is so timely for where I am in life right now. God has really been working me over in the area of personal discipline...or discipleship. Specifically with regards to the Scriptures. I feel like the key to our churches moving in power and seeing the Gospel advance, both in our local context and globally, is that the Church make the Word of God a priority once again.

What we must understand, however, is that this is a process and not an instant, go to bed one night with no discipline or love for God's Word then wake up the next day more aware of your own sin and need for it...it simply doesn't happen like that. We have to discipline ourselves to seek God, then allow Him to change our hearts. That He would give us over to the things that are life giving instead of that which robs us of intimacy with Holiness. Jay Adams put it this way, "You have sought and tried to obtain instant godliness. There is no such thing...We want somebody to give us three easy steps to godliness, and we'll take them next Friday and be godly. The trouble is, godliness doesn't come that way."

While I still have you, let me share this and I'll be done...for now. Webster's new Collegiate Dictionary list as one definition of discipline this, "training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character."

In order to pursue holiness in our own lives we must be willing to correct, mold and train our moral character.

Tough stuff...I know.

A worthy pursuit.

Let's go!

ZS