Discipline, as defined in the dictionary, means "behavior in accord with rules of conduct; behavior and order maintained by training and control." As a sergeant in the army myself, one of the roles that I undertake is to be a disciplinarian, and this allowed me to understand very well what discipline is about. To me, discipline is when we do something that we don't want to, or don't feel like doing, in order to achieve something of the greater good, or a particular objective. For example, discipline is needed when we train hard for our IPPT. Not everyone loves to run, but we all have to keep fit, so we instill discipline by running regularly.
Being a disciple of Christ, in other word christian, requires discipline. In fact, the words discipline and disciple, are of the same family. In the old testament, discipline is of great importance. We see in Leviticus all the different rules that are required of the Israelites, and when anyone breaks a rule, they either lose their life, or get cut off from the community. Now, as we live in the Age Of Grace, many people take things for granted, and often neglect the need for discipline in our walk with God.
Discipline is in fact one of the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22 says "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." 2 Timothy 1:7 also tells us that "God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."
One of the basic discipline of being a christian, is to be on fire for the things of God. This means to be interested, in doing God's work, and not treat it as just another task that is put upon us. Revelations 3:16 says "So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth." What does being interested mean? It means you WANT to go to church, you WANT to go for church activites, you WANT to do God's work, it means you don't try to come up with excuses so you can skip church. I mean its ok if you have a legitimate reason, like you have to be at school or at work, but when the excuses become "oh, I'm so tired" or "I need to rest", theres a problem. Ask yourself, how much of your time exactly are you giving to God. Is God taking up a big part of your time? How long is a service or G12? 2 hours? Out of 24 hours that God gave us, is it too much to take 2 hours to praise Him?
Another christian discipline is to carry the burden of the cross, to deny ourself. Mark 8:34 says "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Its never easy being a christian. This means to wake up early for church services, sitting through sermons, working to do this and that. However, thats something we need to do. Sometimes we are so tired that we don't feel like waking up to go to church. Thats when we need to reflect upon ourselves. Why are we so tired? Is it because of work? Or is it simply because we stayed up late the night before? If we know that we will not be able to wake up in time for church the next morning, then shouldn't we sleep earlier? Why is it that we can pull ourselves up from bed to go to work or school, but not to church? These rhetorical questions seems simple enough, but we need to be asking that ourselves. Going to church and falling asleep constantly through the sermon does not suffice as well. It only shows how interested we are in learning God's word.
Discipline is never a pleasant thing. It means that we have to sacrifice something in order to achieve another thing. We have to sacrifice the time we have with our friends, we have to sacrifice going to the movies, or playing our favourite computer games, but for eternal salvation, is it too much to sacrifice these things for God? And when I say sacrifice, I am not even saying abstaining from these things, we are just going for less late night movies, not playing games late into the night and stuff like that. Thats all. Is it really too much to ask for? We need to see whats beyond the discipline. The results of these sacrifices. Hebrews 12:11 says "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."
Once we understand why there is the need for discipline in our christian walk, we won't find it so hard anymore. This is when we have a vision, and when we work towards the vision. Those that I mentioned are just very basic discipline, going to church, being on fire and stuff like that. In fact, there are alot of disciplines involved in being Christ's disciple. Then again, for eternal salvation, is it too much to ask for? If these disciplines are required of a member, a believer, what more of a spiritual leader? Let us take note of ourselves, and improve upon our own disciplines so that we can serve our God better and bring Him even greater glory.
