Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ! I welcome you to „Daily Word for Spiritual Edification”! Yesterday we began talking about God changing us through discipline. We discussed that every person has some dreams and ideas, but in order for them to come true some of us need more discipline. We also established that some great plans and desires to change something in our lives can come to us while we read the Word, listen to sermons, read good books or meet successful people. Sometimes the desire to change comes to us after we have suffered a set-back or some pain due to wrong decisions we made in the past. In situation like that we get different ideas of how to carry out the necessary changes. So, we get different ideas about changing our life, but these ideas do not come to pass automatically. An idea must grow into a desire. Then as a desire grows stronger, a person makes a decision, and that’s when it gets more serious! But many people stop at this point. The thing is that you must go from a decision to some actions. A decision must turn into actions if you want to see any real changes in your life. So the process of changes consists of making
transitions:
An ideal example of this process is Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son that we read in Luke, 15. Because of the negative circumstances that were caused by his wrong actions, this young man realized that he couldn’t live like this any longer. He got an idea that he needed to go home to his father. He was obsessed with this idea and made a decision to go home. But he did not stop at the ‘idea stage’; he started acting on it. And that is why he saw actual changes in his life! Many people today have numerous ideas and noble desires, but most of them never do anything about it, because they lack determination. There are also other people that go a step further: they make a decision. There are also people that even start doing something, but no changes occur in their lives because they do not finish what they have started. I want to show you that it is not enough to have good ideas and desires if you want to experience changes in your life. Making a decision is a very important step towards changes, but even that is not enough. A decision without action will not bring a positive result. Also actions without discipline won’t bring the desired result. Once again I want to point out that true changes in our lives are not possible without discipline.
idea + desire + decision + action + discipline = success and changes idea + desire + decision + action – discipline = failure and stagnation
We won’t see the desired results in our lives without discipline. All positive changes and every success belong to the people that are able to discipline themselves in all the areas of their lives! It takes discipline to carry out any idea and make it a reality. When we “stick to it”, our ideas „become flesh”. Discipline opens the door for success and promotion in our lives! God bless you! Pastor Rufus Ajiboye
