March 18, 2025

When I hear the word discipline, it tends to bring up negative connotations. That ticket I got years ago or a time of correction as a child. Maybe it's the same for you. However, the word discipline is not necessarily a negative concept.

I enjoy college football, and one thing you will see as you study the routines of these athletes is their very disciplined daily routines. They work out and push their bodies hard, have regimented diets, and know how much recovery care they need. In other words, they've disciplined their bodies. Paul mentions something similar in 1 Corinthians 9:25-26 "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." 

Let's continue to discipline our lives for the glory of God and the furtherance of his Kingdom. As Paul says, athletes can do it for a worldly prize; how much more can we do for the sake of Christ?