Living a Disciplined Life-Part One
This nugget subject is going to be hard hitting and direct. Remember to
read these nuggets in the light of God's love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. However, at the same time there is
the conviction of the Holy Spirit and there is a call to holiness.
Undisciplined Life
Have you ever noticed that many Christians don't live a very disciplined
life? Sometimes Christians are just as irresponsible and at times more
irresponsible than those who do not have a saving relationship with Jesus
Christ. And many times the undisciplined living is actually sin.
Examples of undisciplined living: over spending, bouncing checks, tardiness at work, lazy at work, irresponsible in regards to household chores, overweight, bad habits, lack of exercise, addictions, poor devotional life, hurtful communication-don't control tongue, poor management of time, just plain sloppy or lazy, procrastination, foolish decisions, deceptive.
Some would argue these items are not that bad, have nothing to do with Christianity and many are not sins. We would disagree. Undisciplined living reflects character flaws within our lives and can very much affect our testimony to the world. I heard an unsaved employer say one time, "I just got burned by another Christian employee." It is hypocrisy to say Jesus is Lord, but our lifestyle says Food, Money, Laziness is our God.
Results of an Undisciplined Life
The natural consequences ("non-spiritual") are loss of
money, loss of time (time is lost because of the time taken to handle
consequences), loss of health, loss of job.
The spiritual consequences are loss of money so not able to help support God's kingdom, loss of time so not able to volunteer as much for God's kingdom, and a poor testimony. The greatest loss is that God can't trust us. He can't trust us with the 'little things', so He is unable to trust us in the 'bigger things'. At times God does not answer our prayers because of our Undisciplined Living. Think about it. Why would He give me a better car if I do not take care of the car I have? A nicer house when we don't take care of the yard we have. A better job when we are lazy at our current job. Good health when we don't exercise and we eat junk food. Why would He bless us financially if we make poor money decisions?
The greatest loss is not being all you can be for Him. And you miss out on a greater gifting, anointing, and receiving all the blessings He has for you. You become ineffective for His kingdom. Ultimately that is sin. And if God is convicting you about the fact that your are living an irresponsible life and you are refusing to work on changing, you are in rebellion. It is time to repent and ask Him to give you strength to live a fruitful, victorious life.
In Part Two of this nugget we will take about some ways to start living a Disciplined Life. There is hope. And for those of you who think you are a disciplined person, be careful of being prideful. Some of you are so disciplined that you have loss spontaneity and unwilling for God to "mess up" your schedule, or to be willing to drop everything for someone who is hurting. Rigidity can be just as sinful. Being a perfectionist, workaholic, churchaholic, extremely structured is not something to be proud about.
Copyright © 2001 Richard D. Dover. All rights reserved.
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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations used are from the New American Standard Version (NASB).