Restart

How many times over the course of my Christian life have I had to restart the basics of morning Bible study and prayer? Honestly, it’s embarrassing how long it took me to get to a point where I can consistently get up early and spend my first minutes with my Savior.

So many times I’ve restarted with good intentions thinking “I’ve got this” only to fizzle out a few weeks or even days later. The warmth of the pillow was a stronger desire. Those times of restart were all good reminders to me of what my duty as a Christian entailed, but duty is not the best motive to create a sustained habit. Or at least it wasn’t sufficient motivation for me for the first 25 years of my Christian life. The goal of course is to get to a motive of true devotion where you are craving those quiet moments of reflection and prayer. I’ve found that it takes discipline to move you from duty to devotion. Ugh, I hate that word! Discipline. It represents everything ugly about myself. That’s always what stands between me and who I want to be, who God wants me to become. In my past, the lack of discipline has kept me from:

* Getting good grades

* Excelling in music

* Losing weight

* Having victory in my mind

* Having a consistent Quiet Time

* Becoming a better husband and father

* Enter your struggle here _______________________

But once you can tackle just one of these areas and exercise real discipline to create a sustained change it becomes easier to tap into that spirit of discipline for the next struggle. So start small. Tackle something realistic and build off of that success to the next and the next. It takes discipline to move you from duty to devotion.

#discipline