Discipline!

The road to life is a disciplined life; ignore correction and you’re lost for good.
Proverbs 10:17 MSG

Discipline is a strange word. Man does not like it, yet he cannot amount to much without it. God cannot do without it; in fact, it is his tool to model us after his own pattern. Life itself is delicate and calls for caution for all who will enjoy it. The idea of what man calls 'enjoyment' is a far  cry from what God refers to as true life itself.

Anyone who will truly live the life of purpose and direction that God intends has to go through the path of discipline. The world defines it 'as the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behaviour, using punishment to correct disobedience'.  The world cannot compel right living without the threat of punishment.

God defines discipline from the viewpoint of love and a desire to make a life better. Hebrews 12:6-7 KJV says: 'For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? '

As you travel on the road called life, situations, circumstances and events will come to test the quality and depths of your knowledge of God and his will. If you know who God truly is, compromise is difficult. When you do not know who you are or who you belong to, then you are prone to the dictates of an uncertain world. When God corrects, your present and eternal life is the focus. When God disciplines, he's preparing you for the great things that are ahead. If you ignore God's promptings, you will get lost. When nothing cautions you in your decisions and planning, then you are set up for a great fall. When God cautions you and you heed his warnings, rebuke, correction and discipline, impact is nonnegotiable. His time of favour is here.