Discipline

If we go to Corinthians 9:27 (NKJV):

“But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 

Keeping good habits is very important for the believer.  Jesus is our ultimate example.  If we go to the Word of God in Luke 4:16  we see the Bible tells us, that it was His custom to go up to the synagogue, it was His discipline, it was His good habit, to go up to the synagogue every Sabbath. 

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read. Luke 4:16

In this time in which we are living, where there seems to be no order of things, everything is changing with this Coronavirus and with total disrespect for human life or personal property, there seems to be very little discipline.  As followers of Jesus, we have got to discipline ourselves.  We need to have good habits.  As I write this letter, I am about to go and ride my horse.  I try to ride him as often as I can, because when I ride him regularly, habitually he behaves himself very well, but if I keep putting it off and only ride him maybe once a month, then I am expecting trouble, he gets frisky and most horses do that.  You will find any horseman will tell you that the best thing to do for your horse is to ride him regularly, it’s a good habit, a bad habit is to neglect that.  I don’t know how many farms I go to where there are horses standing in the field with no riders.  Maybe the children have gone to University and there’s no one to ride the horses.  It’s not fair on the horse, because eventually when somebody wants to ride the horse, the horse wants to buck them off or run away and of course the horse gets the blame, but it’s not his fault at all, it is because his owner has been undisciplined and does not ride the horse regularly.  

 As Christians, we need to get up out of bed every morning, habitually and have our quiet times.  We need to hear from God before we hear from anybody else.  Some practical hints like going to bed at night at a decent hour at night and not watching rubbish on television, then we are able to get up in the morning, to discipline ourselves, have a good, long quiet time and it will settle us and take us right through the day.  I really want to encourage you to spend time, habitually, with the Lord every day, it’s a good habit because bad habits lead to bad lifestyles.  

So God bless you as you, a good soldier of the cross, follow the example of Jesus and Paul the Apostle and discipline our bodies when it comes to regular eating properly, eating good food, regular food and exercising physically, mentally but most importantly spiritually and then we will never become disqualified. 

God Bless You
Angus and Jill Buchan