Workout Discipline

Continuing to go to workouts requires discipline. Workouts are not recreation for me because they are painful and uncomfortable. I do them because I recognize the long-term benefit of short-term discomfort. That recognition is called discipline.
In my spiritual life I find two types of discipline. Today I will talk about the type we recognize as parents. At times we have to inflict emotional or physical pain on our children because we want to correct incorrect behavior with the purpose of helping to bring them to maturity. Out Heavenly Father will bring challenges into our path that cause us to actually trust Him, or to exercise our spiritual "muscles". It is during these dark times that we find out how big God is. Our experience in him goes from theoretical to actual. And when we realize that God is faithful even when we are not getting the outcomes we want, we begin to develop in ways that will not happen when we are unchallenged. We will develop endurance, patience, and tremendous faith.

The only way that we do not increase in our relationship with our loving Heavenly Father during these time is if we recoil from the pain and withdraw from our relationship with Him. But if we will draw closer to Him, we will find that we are stronger and more useful to the Kingdom than we ever thought possible. Hebrews 12:11 tells us "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." Remember that the discipline of God is administered by a God who loves us and is not mad at us. He does not allow anything to happen to us without purpose and He will not put any more on us than we can handle.

Tomorrow I will talk about self-imposed discipline.