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!

How Much Faith

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

Hebrews 11:13

This is the very essence of faith, "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see..." v1. How do we Christians talk about faith? We throw the word around like it's something tangible and quantifiable. Can we really build faith? Is there some method or formula to attain it? You can definitely practice it and build your foundation around it but faith is something you either have or don't. This is nicely summed up in Matthew 17:20, "... I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to the mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." It doesn't say when you attain this level of faith then you can move mountains. The same faith that heals the sick is the same faith that encourages us to forgive & serve. All believers have this faith, it's our unbelief that gets in the way. We need to stop listening to the devil's lies and pay more attention to God's voice of Truth.

I remember first starting my wonderful journey with Christ, how those words in Matthew 17:20 rung in my mind. I took it as the opposite, that I don't even have a little bit of faith; and that led me to think negatively about my walk. But as I grew in Christ, that passage was such an encouraging verse; that by just choosing Him through faith there's nothing we can't do with the Spirit within us.

So now where do I stand in faith? Do I have faith like all those mentioned in Hebrews 11; to live such faithful lives without ever receiving the promises of God? I can say with all honesty, that would be hard but we still press through and follow Him. Right now, my finances are shaky and I have a bit of anxiety because of it. How am I going to pay my bills? On top of that, I really really want to take bible classes and attend seminary but how am I going to pay for it? Where's my faith in all this? Do I just enroll and pray to God to fill my desires? Do I just continue on as normal hoping God will intervene? Or do I involve God with all my thoughts and decisions through a relationship? Yes, I need to do this. Whenever I kneel to pray and worship, I do this because I have faith that God is there waiting for me to sit with Him. My faith brings me to my knees. Without faith, how do I justify my posture? It would seem foolish to talk to myself and sing praises about nothing. Running to Him shows where our faith is.

Heavenly Father, thank You for building me into the person I am today. But You're not done with me yet, You have many more plans and this is just the beginning! Thank You so much for including me in Your heavenly works! Thank You for being the source of all faith... In the awesome name of Christ Jesus I pray, Amen!