Readings for today: Deuteronomy 8-11
Discipline seems to be a bad word these days. In fact, the opposite seems to be celebrated and promoted. Everyone is encouraged to do what is right in their own eyes. Do what feels good to them. Live life to the fullest, even to excess, without a care of how it might impact others. The results are not good. I’ve watched marriages break up as spouses seek to “live their truth.” I’ve watched children struggle for lack of discipline in the home or at school. I’ve watched people incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt as they live beyond their means. On a national and/or global scale, it often maps out as fraud, waste, and abuse. Political leaders taking advantage of the system to line their own pockets or accumulate power or use their influence to hurt those who might stand in their way.
How is discipline developed? Through hardship. Through trial. Through what the Bible calls “long-suffering.” The people of God had wandered in the wilderness for forty years. An entire generation had died. Now they stand on the cusp of the Promised Land. A land flowing with milk and honey. A fertile and prosperous land where they will find great wealth and success. Moses is preaching his final sermon to them. This is the last chance he has to remind them of what’s most important and what does he encourage them to keep in mind? “Remember the whole way by which he has brought you these forty years through the desert so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not. So he humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you with unfamiliar manna. He did this to teach you that humankind cannot live by bread alone, but also by everything that comes from the Lord’s mouth. Your clothing did not wear out nor did your feet swell all these forty years. Be keenly aware that just as a parent disciplines his child, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you must keep his commandments, live according to his standards, and revere him.” (Deuteronomy 8:2-6 NET) Remember the lessons God taught you. Lessons about His provision. Lessons about His protection. Most of all, lessons on discipline. Learning to live according to God’s Word and God’s commands.
It takes discipline to follow Jesus. In fact, Jesus Himself said that following Him requires us a deny ourselves daily. Deny the sinful passions and pleasures we would otherwise indulge in. Deny excess and greed. Deny our natural tendencies to cling to pride and entitlement and make “self” the center of our lives. Jesus gets to be the center. But Jesus also knows such discipline doesn’t come naturally so He teaches us. He trains us. He takes us through hard seasons in order to refine and test us. Do not resist the Lord’s discipline when it comes for God only disciplines those He loves and His desire is for you to become like Him.
Readings for tomorrow: Deuteronomy 12-15