Road Rules: Discipline

Discipline is not pleasant. Okay, that’s an understatement. It’s painful. It stops us from doing what we want to do. It keeps us from going where we want to go. It makes us wish we hadn’t said the words that were forcefully expelled from our mouths. I don’t like discipline—never did, never will. And yet…I desperately need it.  Like a two-year-old playing by a busy street, I can get too close to spiritual danger. Sometimes I play by the dangerous road in my mind, Making unfair judgments and having impure thoughts that are far from true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise. Sometimes I play by the dangerous road with my eyes. Lust, greed, materialism, and power all are tempting visitors to the lamp of the body. Sometimes I play by the dangerous road with my desires. Why do I see everyone else in a better spot, farther along, having what I want?  God loves you and me too much to let us play by a dangerous road. That’s why the writer of the Proverbs 3:11-12 says this, 

Proverbs 3:11-12 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

An unloved child is an undisciplined child. Someone doesn’t care enough to help form the child’s spirit. But our heavenly Father loves us with a love that he initiates, that’s free and guaranteed. God sent Jesus to deliver you from a road of sin that would have destroyed you and separated you from God for eternity. And…he is not about to let you play by dangerous roads now.  Father, thank you for loving me so much that you discipline me. You wake me out of my spiritual stupor. You deliver me from dangerous places. You put me on the good path and walk by my side. Thank you for loving me enough to discipline me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.