Needing Discipline

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons... 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.

Hebrews 12:7-8,11

As a child, we've all gone through discipline from our parents and elders; we didn't like it because it caused us some sort of discomfort but the result of it was better character, a firmer spirit. For our spirit to grow in faith we need discipline in our lives because the difficultly level of our life challenges will be based on how developed our spirit is. That's why 2 different people can have different experiences on the same set of circumstances.

I never realized how much discipline was poured into my life as a child. We did things with structure; got up, ate and slept at about the same times. When we planned something, we did it at that specified time, life was stable and predictable. It also taught me to respect someone else's time. Now in life I find myself backsliding from these teachings because I don't have that disciplinary figure in my life. I go as I choose, whenever and wherever. This s0-called freedom has trapped me into a lifestyle of laziness and disrespect. So what can I do to become disciplined again? I know it needs to come from God through the Holy Spirit... but what do I do? I need to set prayer time so that God can set my boundaries and margins. Everything comes back to prayer and I'm so lacking in that area. So I need to commit more prayer time, not methods or restrictions.

Heavenly Father and Mighty Discipliner, thank You for freeing us from our chains! You've given us such a wonderful gift and we're misusing it for ourselves. Please remind me daily to stop and pray no matter what the situation. I give up my planner to You so that You can have complete control over my life... when to pray, when to be compassionate & when to put the clamps on myself in order to discipline myself to fall under Your grace. I pray this in Your precious Son's name, Amen!