The Answer to Your Breakthrough Might Be:

“Discipline”

by Olga Hermans

 

 

 

What does it mean to be disciplined? Discipline can be described as “training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.”

I truly believe a disciplined life is a powerful life. Learning to be disciplined and to practice self-control will keep you from laziness and excess, and will help you stay focused and productive. It will require you to make an effort, but the reward will be worth the work.

Many people enjoy watching American Idol or the Super Bowl or some type of game or contest. We love to see people achieve something, especially when they receive a reward or a gold medal or something. I am not so much into sports, but I like to watch the end of the Super Bowl or the Playoffs. Discipline is the price of freedom.

It is the door to liberation. When we are not disciplined, we become slaves; we fall under the power of things that should have no control over us. For example, when we don’t discipline ourselves to eat healthy, we become slaves to fat, sugars, and other substances that are harmful to our health.

A few weeks ago I decided to not be a slave to caffeine any more. It took discipline to endure the a tremendous headache for a couple of days, but I did it. I grew up with the coffeepot brewing in our kitchen all day long, but I broke the habit and I must say it feels good to be free from it.When we do not discipline ourselves to get enough rest, we become slaves to weariness and we get a murmuring, fault-finding, complaining attitude which we learned last week; remember?

The one thing that I like to discipline myself in is that controlling and ruling my life by the Word of God.
I desire to follow the Word of God in every area of my life, whether in my finances, my relationships or my marriage. Today, November 21st, is our anniversary by the way; I have been married to the love of my life for 31 years! Thank you for all your congratulations. 🙂

But every area in our life needs discipline. Living a disciplined life means that we practice the Word of God on a consistent basis and the only way to do that is by doing what it tells us to do. As a result you will find yourself living right in the middle of God’s blessings. This is the only way to discover the life you were born to live.

It is the only way to live a life without regrets. Right now you might be thinking that being disciplined sounds like a lot of work and YES you are right, because it is. So many times we keep asking ourselves why things are not working as they should and we come to the conclusion that we don’t discipline ourselves to read the Word.

Getting up a little earlier before you get to work takes discipline, consistently every morning to read and pray takes discipline, but the reward is a closer relationship with God and wisdom for making decisions in life.

Taking time to read your Bible every day may seem like a chore at first, but the more you do it, the more revelation, understanding and knowledge you will gain from God’s Word. This will help you renew your mind and live a successful Christian life. There is a price to pay to go to higher levels in God, and discipline is that price.

We need to learn how to live the new life that is given to us the moment we were born again and how to align our thinking with the truth of His Word.

We have to be disciplined about it. God gives us great freedom; He allows us to choose what we want to think, say and do. Discipline is never fun when you are first training yourself to do certain things. Start thinking and saying, “I am a disciplined person and I use self-control.”

Then apply that discipline and self-control to all your thoughts. We need to discipline our mind because our thoughts and emotions can change so quickly. One day we might be calm and reserved, sure of ourselves, and confident in God. Another day, we might be worried, anxious, insecure, and full of doubt.

Our thinking directly affects our emotions. Some decisions seem to be very easy and we seem to make decisions quickly and stick with it, but then there are times that it feels like it is impossible to make decision  even though we try very hard and then we keep changing our mind.

Doubt and fear haunt us and we cannot make up our mind. Many people struggle with this lack of ability to concentrate and make decisions. We can easily feel overwhelmed by all the decisions we need to make daily unless we have the confidence to believe that we have the ability to make the right ones.

But if you will make a quality decision to live a life of discipline, Jesus Christ Himself will help you follow through on what you have decided to do (Phil. 4:13). It is not like you are going to wake up one day and all of a sudden you are disciplined; that ain’t gonna happen!

There is a way to follow God’s rules and living your life in line with the Bible; it takes work and it requires patience as well. It will take a quality decision and a commitment to become a mature Christian. It is fun to grow up spiritually, gain more wisdom and understanding of things; knowing that you are pleasing God and following His ways and not your own.

There is a reward waiting for you. You need to keep your dreams and your vision before you; you need to know where you want to be and what you want to become. This is the time of year that many people are thinking about their goals; set spiritual goals for yourself to give you something to work toward. 2012 is going to be a great year.

Make it easy for yourself to focus on your journey by having a clear destination in sight and it will also help you perfect a life of discipline and diligence.

There is lot of talent lost because people didn’t know how to make a decision. Many people will never see their visions and life purpose manifest because they lack discipline. We don’t want to talk about this critical aspect of life and try to ignore it by focusing on only the spiritual side of reaching our breakthrough.

But the truth of the matter is that you need to be disciplined in every of your life and in your daily habits if you want to discover the life you were born to live. It is impossible without discipline. I encourage you to examine your life and think about the blessings that may be blocked because you fail to discipline yourself in the things of God.

When you realize what it is, decide today to change, and watch God manifest His goodness to you. Becoming disciplined is a part of developing godly character and the very answer to your breakthrough.

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