Discipline In Discipleship

Accepting Jesus Christ as Savior is easy. We learn at a young age that Jesus is knocking at our hearts and is asking to enter in. We sing songs of God's love. We so very quickly accept God's forgiveness when we sin. We can justify our actions through Jesus loving us as we are.

Following Jesus as Master and Teacher is hard. Again, we learn at a young age that the world is a cold, cruel place. We view hatred on TV and social media. To forgive when we have been wronged is almost impossible. To put another person's needs before ours is practically unheard of. To understand someone else's actions takes too much effort.

Jesus never said being a follower would be easy. As a matter of fact, he said that it would be a narrow road that few would be able to travel.

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:12 -14

 Jesus also taught his disciples that following him would be difficult.

"Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." Matthew 16:24-25

So what does it look like to pick up our cross and walk down the narrow road? Yes that is the image I have in my mind when I think about following Christ. It means to remove those things in life that are harmful to our walk with Christ. That may look different for you than it is for me. But the truth is, the enemy uses our weaknesses to diminish our discipline in our discipleship to Christ. What we need to do is strengthen ourselves and be aware when we are straying from the narrow path that Christ has called us to walk.

1. Pray daily. I know you have heard this a thousand times or more, but this is the cornerstone, the foundation of our discipleship. Communication is key.

2. Read daily. When we read God's Word we begin to digest and internalize it. When we read God's Word for ourself, it becomes personal, as God's Holy Spirit will begin to connect with our spirit.

3. Ask questions. Do not be afraid to ask God the "hard questions". After all, He is the one with all the answers. He tells us that we do not know, because we do not ask (Proverbs 14:6, Matthew 7:7)

To follow Christ and his teachings takes discipline. It is a simple truth. Discipline is hard. That is why so many fail. As Christians, we cannot be content with just "being saved". If you are comfortable with just drinking the milk of the truth of God, then ask yourself why are you even calling yourself a Christian?

"In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." -Hebrews 5:12-14

To strengthen discipline, get around those who are strong in discipline. Find a community of believers who can help you to move pass the milk stage and people feeding you to eating the meat and you feeding yourself. At that point you will be able to begin to feed others, help them grow and become mature Christians. That is what we are called to do. Follow Christ, Take up our Cross and Teach Others.


~Peace & Blessings~
Jen

Distractions

Wait...what? What was I just doing? What was that thought I had a moment ago?

Have you ever asked yourself these questions? Me too. I will be the first one to say "Write it down!" but forget to write things down. It's a sad state of affairs. Why are we so forgetful? There was a time in our human history where it was vital to remember. It has been vital to retaining history, remembering events and at one point how to get in touch with your friends by phone. I will be the first to say that I'm grateful for pen, paper and even technology, but there are things that we should commit to memory, but it does have to be written down or passed down for generations to come.

Habakkuk 2:2; {The Lord’s Answer} "Then the Lord replied: 'Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.'"  

I believe one of the reasons that we tend to forget things is because of all the distractions that are all around. The TV, the internet, thousands of magazines, advertisements, just an overload of information! We are so bombarded that we tend to remember the jingle of a company before we remember why we walked into the next room. Distractions in our lives can crowd out our time with the Lord.

Luke 10:40; "But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!'”

Another reason may just be that we don't spend time with one another as much as we used to. We share stories on social media sites, but not with our friends when we are face to face with one another. We expect people to already know what is going on - as if our day is consumed with combing the internet with "what is she doing now?". Storytelling is vital for memory! Jesus would share parables. People would go and tell their family and neighbors when Jesus healed them.

Matthew 13:3; "Then he told them many things in parables..."

 John 4:39; [ Many Samaritans Believe ] Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”

The antidote to remembering? I could not tell you for certain, but I do believe it is repetition. You've heard of muscle memory haven't you? When you repeat the same motion with the same weight time after time - your muscles remember and can work with ease. The brain should be exercised as a muscle. Reading, memory games (yes there's a lot of them out there), and repeating of stories are some great ways to exercise the brain.

Joel 1:3; "Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation."

Isn't great to know that God never forgets! He remembers his promises, he remembers our names, he even remembers what we do for him and for others in his name. We will be held accountable for all of it! I looked up the word remember in the Bible. It is mentioned 231 times! It's safe to say that memory is important. We must be intentional and not get distracted when it comes to remembering things.

Psalm 77:12; "I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

Maybe it will take repetition or to write things down in order to remember, but the truth is we need to remember all the goodness that God provides. We need to remember what God has done in our lives! We need to share with others God's promises to man. So I challenge you today, share a story (from memory) of what God has done in your life with someone today.  Read and re-read a new scripture verse and commit it to memory. Write down in a journal your prayers and look back on it and make a note of when God answered that prayer.

Exodus 34:27; "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.'”

~Peace & Blessings~
Jen

Hindsight

It has been said that "Hindsight is 20/20". There are times that I think that hindsight should be blind. It is all too easy to look back on prior decisions and beat yourself up for the choices that you made and in turn this hinders you from making better choices in you immediate present and potential future. So how can we become blind to our hindsight?

I have been giving this much thought over the past few days and I have come up with a list that has helped me, and I hope will help you.

1. It's never too late to do what you have always wanted to do.

-I didn't finish college. I have wanted to go back for many years, but there was always a reason (really an excuse) for not going back. I made the decision to enroll and will begin with as many classes as I can this semester. Is it scary? If I am to be honest, yes, but I know this is what I want to do, need to do. I cannot let my past failure of not finishing take hold of my future anymore.

2. Forgiveness is for everyone.

-I'm not sure how to expand on this very simple truth. To harbor ill feelings towards someone causes so much turmoil. To ask for forgiveness and to forgive others who have hurt you will free you to move on in your life with a feeling of freedom that you otherwise will have missed.

3. It's okay if you stumble.

-When trying to change a habit, you will fail. Does this mean that you quit? NO! Dust yourself off and try again. Habit comes from the word habitual. So it will take time to change. Don't look back on your past self and think that you cannot change, because you can.

4. You can reflect back on your past, but you can't live in it.

-The number one reason people are afraid to change is because they live in their past. I did this for far too many years. So stop living in your past and focus on living in your present. Change can and will happen, one step at a time once you decide to stop looking in the rearview mirror and focus on the road ahead of you.

I hope you will be encouraged today. I hope you will fight for yourself. I hope that this little tidbit of insight will help.

~Peace & Blessings~
Jen

Why hello

It's so good to be back at working on this blog. It's been a while, but that is because I have been at a loss as to what to write about. There's so many ideas that run through my mind as to what I'd like to share, but as the title of this blog states, this is nothing more than a coffee break. So let's chat...

Where are you in your life right now? Me, I'm in the midst of teen-age angst. My daughter will be 15 next month, and is really excited about learning to drive. My husband and I have told her that until she stops sucking her thumb for 6 weeks, there will be no permit in her future. I am hoping that this will be an incentive for her to stop sucking on her thumb.

I know that we all have vices, and I am no exception. It takes discipline to change habits and I often feel as though I just don't have the discipline to change my own habits, let alone encourage others to change there's.  So I have decided to begin with me and be an example to my daughter and to my sons.

Over the next 30 days I am going to focus on disciplining just one area of my life. I will be hard on myself I already know, and I am sure that I will forget to rely on my faith and my friends, so prayers are appreciated. I will not tell you at this time what I am changing in my life (I don't want to disappoint) but once my 30 days are over I will let you know how I did.

Is there an area in your life that you'd like to change or would like to have more discipline over? Are you willing to share so that we can stay accountable to each other over the next 30 days? Join me on a journey of change...


Jen