The Need for Self-Discipline
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23
In 2018, I published a blog about the need for believers to have self-discipline. I used some information from a website called wanderlustworker.com in which the author listed ten steps to self-discipline, but I just listed the ten steps without elaborating (putting my two cents’ worth in) on each one. The term “discipline” comes from the term “disciple”, one who follows a certain person, religion, cult, teaching, etc., or one who believes in and receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It is obvious to state that a disciple, if he or she is to be a good representative of the Lord, must be disciplined. I don’t know why “temperance” or self-discipline was listed last in the verse because it seems that self-discipline is necessary for all the other fruits of the Spirit. Try being longsuffering, that is, patient without self-discipline!
The first step in developing discipline in one’s life is GRATITUDE, being thankful for all the blessings of life. How thankful that I am that Jesus died on the cross to save me from my sins and provide eternal life for me. To show gratitude is to express to the Lord and to others that we are not independent of one another, that we need the Lord and each other in our journey in this sin-cursed world. We develop discipline by recognizing that we can do nothing on our own. The second step is FORGIVENESS. We have received forgiveness from the Lord, and thus, in becoming like Him, we are to be forgiving. Sometimes it is difficult to forgive someone, but we must make up our minds to forgive and move on remembering how God forgave us. The third step is MEDITATION, an act of devotion such as Bible study and then reflecting upon what we have read. Many Christians have difficulty in setting aside a regular time for such. If we can develop the habit of regular Bible study, prayer, and meditation, then we will find that the desire to become more disciplined in other areas of our lives is greater.
ACTIVE GOAL SETTING leads to better discipline if we follow through on working toward our goals. Life without goals is like a life of lethargy, feeling down on oneself, and feeling useless. That’s no way to live. When we meet our goals, we are encouraged to set more goals, thereby edifying our service to the Lord and giving us confidence to grow in our walk with Christ. HEALTHY EATING is of the utmost importance to how we feel daily. We all know that self-discipline is established when we can turn down the junk food and go for the vegetable, fruits, and whole grains. Dieters call that “will power”. My secret for establishing healthy eating habits, and you won’t’ like this, but you must desire to be at a healthy weight more than you desire food. It is as simple as that. I told you that you wouldn’t like it, but it works. Eat to live; don’t live to eat.
Along with eating healthy, SLEEP is vital to a person’s well-being. The experts tell us that very few of us are getting enough sleep at night. Our minds can’t quiet down from the day’s activities, problems, and worries. I have seen products on television advertised to provide more restful sleep. They are reported to not be habit-forming, but it seems to me that if you must take one each night to get to sleep, then it is a habit that is depended on for sleep. It is better to, first of all, not watch or read anything before bed that is disturbing, to develop a regular bedtime, and a regular time to arise each morning. If we follow this discipline, we will feel better and be better able to follow other means of self-discipline, such as regular EXERCISE. You knew that I was going to say that! I Timothy 4:8 tells us that exercise only profits us a little, but godliness provides us great returns. Paul didn’t say that exercise was of no benefit at all, and we know that when we exercise, we feel better physically and mentally which benefits our efforts at self-discipline.
The last three steps to self-discipline are ORGANIZATION, TIME MANAGEMENT, and PERSISTENCE, all interrelated disciplines which keep us on the right track, helps us to avoid wasting precious time, and gives us a determination to finish the task at hand. I would say that if anyone could follow all ten of these steps consistently, then he or she would be a very disciplined individual. All these steps build upon one another to reinforce a life of self-discipline which is valuable not just in our Christian walk but in all other areas of life.