discipled living

One of the great realities of life is that struggle is involved. The pathway to growth is always paved with struggle, challenge and hardship. We cannot avoid them, because they are the building blocks of successful and fulfilling growth as a person and as a disciple of Jesus Christ. People are made weak by one of two attitudes; unwillingness to begin the growth struggle, or the false belief that growth can occur without struggle.

No one has ever become physically strong until they willingly and purposefully pick up a weight, or engage in resistance training. In either instance the result of picking up some weights or resisting weights, is power and strength. The same is true of discipleship. We must pick up our cross daily and follow Christ, and we must resist the power of our carnal minds to build real spiritual strength.

Spiritual strength can not be developed in the laboratory of Bible Study, or the Sunday morning pew during preaching time. Spiritual strength is developed when you gain wisdom and knowledge through Bible Study and The Preached Word, and then practice them in your daily life and interaction with people and problems. It is the exercise of what you receive through preaching and teaching that makes them priceless and makes you powerful. God tells us in Hebrew 12:5-11,

5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:“ My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

We ought to revel in the honesty of God’s Word as He acknowledges through the writer of Hebrews that, “No Discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.” We ought to take away from this a profound truth, that God’s desire is not to make you happy in the short term by providing a life of ease, without struggle. No God is more concerned with the life you will live that produces joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, the Fruit of the Spirit. The Father knows that the only way to achieve this life is through a life of discipline.

God says that those who are trained by discipline experience a harvest of righteousness and peace. The benefits of discipline and ultimately a discipled life are right living and the assurance that your life will be delivered safely to its appointed destination. We are made certain of our calling and election by the discipline we engage and by the product of that discipline in our lives.

We are instructed through Peter in 2 Peter 1:3-8 as God says,

“3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.