We all are searching for joy, yes, all of us whether followers of Christ or not.

“⁴Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth, ⁵that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?” – Job 20:4-5 (ESV)

When I find joy, am I finding it in God, or am I finding it in the world? I know this is a tough question to answer and one that gets me to really thinking.

When I find joy, I have to be looking for the sustainability of that joy. When the joy I find is in God and all that he has given, then it stays with me. When I relish in the joy from the world, it is fleeting and is only for the moment.

Take the example of winning some competition or finding success with a task or project, that joy is only for that moment and as soon as the next competition or task is upon us, the joy is gone. But, when we find joy in the working through the competition or task and our joy is rooted in the completion that stays with us forever.

I may have been looking at it all wrong. The season we are in is a struggle and I have not been running this race for the race itself, but looking for the finish line. The line will not come here on earth, it is a constant race that we have to continue running and find joy in that race as opposed to looking for the joy of the end. God provides the joy during the race and when found by us, we will be able to more fully embrace it. When our joy comes from the one task or competition completion, we are able to embrace the moment and not the journey God has us on.

Are you embracing the winning of the competition, or the completion of a task? What if you were to simply embrace the journey instead of the moment? How much more sustainable joy would you be able to find by avoiding the simple moment of earthly “victory”?

Being indecisive creates confusion and it delays action.

“¹⁵I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! ¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” – Revelation 3:15-16 (ESV)

Make a decision already! Without one, we are simply marking time and not moving forward. We are not winning or losing. God wants us moving, obeying, and loving. We are not making any progress (either good or bad) if we are simply indecisive.

Making a decision is moving forward. Either in the right direction or wrong. If we are moving, obeying, and loving, God will give us additional direction. When we are sitting waiting, God will simply sit and wait also.

Last year I chose to live the word “stand” in an effort to get moving as I was idle for too long. This year I choose to live the word “example” in an effort to calm some of the, dare I say, aggressive standing I did. Either way, I am at least moving and am able to get some direction from God. Am I getting it right, an emphatic NO! But, I am moving and God is providing me with my next moves.

Discipline to make those decisions in our lives is important in getting us moving. Discipline after the decisions will come from God as he corrects our path. But without discipline, we are standing idle and so is God, waiting for us to make a move so that he can help.

Where are you in your decision making? Are you standing idle waiting for direction? Or, are you disciplined enough to make a decision and get help from our Lord and Savior?

I am sure that like me you have heard the phrase; “No Pain, No Gain”. Well I never really thought to apply it to my walk with Christ. It is truer in our walk with Him than other places on this earth.

“⁵And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. ⁶For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastised every son whom he receives.’…¹¹For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” – Hebrews 12:5-6 & 11 – (ESV)

These verses give me encouragement with regard to the concept of pain for gain. God never indicated that being a Christian would be easy. In fact, if we look at the life of Jesus where He was rebuked and attacked and tested, He still stayed the course even to death for the gain was greater than the pain.

How can I grumble about the difficulty I am having if Jesus did not grumble with the even worse time He had of it while walking this earth? I have to place things in context and realize that here on the earth, I may be suffering, but God is preparing my reward for my perseverance.

I must have and endure discipline to stay the path laid out for my by God. My reward will be great, but I have to stick it out for the “peaceful fruit of righteousness” in store.

Are you feeling the pain of discipline? When you feel that pain, where are you looking? Are you looking at the pain, or the blessings to come?

“¹²Apply you heart to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.” – Proverbs 23:12 (ESV) “⁹Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words.” – Proverbs 23:9 (ESV)

When I was reading this morning about discipline, these verses stood out. I know, I have written them verses in reverse order from how they appear in God’s Word. They make sense to me this way.

It all starts with instruction and discipline. When we are disciplined, we are able to apply the instruction of God in our lives. We understand and continually work to obey God’s commands to keep us on the path he has prepared for us.

With the instruction and discipline comes our ability to know what to listen to and what to avoid. When we are focused on true knowledge, we are able to avoid the doing things that are not beneficial, like speaking to someone who does not want to listen anyway.

I know it is difficult to avoid someone who is not listening. We want to be sure that they hear the truth. But, they don’t want the truth, they feel as though they are all set. We can still witness to them with our actions and be the example of Christ by providing love for them, however we are only wasting our breath when trying to explain and speak the truth.

How have you fared when trying to get through to someone that did not want to hear? We have a path provided by God, are we trying to bring others on our path or are we a part of their path as provided by God? What would happen if we were to apply discipline and avoid wasting our breath?

“Folly: a foolish act or idea” – Merriam-Webster Online

“¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.” – Proverbs 22:15 (ESV)

Let’s face it, children have to learn. They will make mistakes and must learn from those mistakes in order to move forward. Focus on the “foolish” part of the definition above. Mistakes are bound to happen and are a vital part of the learning, however what if we could minimize the damage of mistakes?

When we remove the folly from our actions we are able to direct the learning to those areas that are beneficial. Discipline provides a path to minimizing the damage of the mistakes.

I want to be clear in that I am not saying that fun must be removed, on the contrary. The “foolish” acts where we know better or have an idea of what is better is what we are to avoid. Example of the penny in the light socket. When we know better, we are to instruct to help others avoid the shock that comes with it.

We know better in a lot of things and that helps us avoid the “foolish acts”, but are we instructing others to avoid those same acts? What would happen if we simply had an attitude of training others to avoid those acts? What if we taught discipline to drive away folly?

“This hurts me more than it hurts you.” How many of us have heard this statement from a parent or loved one? The truth is that discipline does not drive hurt, it demonstrates love.

“²⁴Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” – Proverbs 13:24 (ESV)

As parents, it is our duty to discipline our children and keep them on the “right” path as we see it. If we are not disciplining our children or we are failing them. Without discipline, we will not reach our full potential. We are wandering aimlessly expecting that “good” will just come or happen.

We are here to make sure that others are checking in with and diligent in their seeking of the path in store for them from God. That path has already been laid out for us and we are to be searching for it. That searching requires discipline to remain on the search and not give up. I am amazed when our boys indicated that they “can’t find” something in their room or other area and when I make my way to help, the location of the item is realized. I simply took the opportunity to move some things, look under other things, and exhaust the whole of the room whereas they simply peeked through the door expecting the item to jump into their hand. Truly searching and seeking requires work and that work requires discipline.

In our duty, we are to demonstrate love through disciplining others to stay the course, seek the path, and search. The ultimate path is the one that God laid out and in order to find it, you and I are going to have to keep looking. That path may be bright and shiny right now and things seem to be going well. There will also be times of ambiguity and it is in those times that we have to be disciplined.

Love is the way of Christ and discipline is the demonstration of that love.

Are you searching for the path? Are you, have you been disciplined in your search? Have others held you accountable, or are you holding others accountable to the search, driving to find again the path that God has in store? Do you realized the love demonstrated through that discipline?

How long did you go to school? Even after your formal education, how did you learn and gain true knowledge?

Learning takes time and focus. We have to be dedicated and make time for our learning and we also have to stay with it.

“¹Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.” – Proverbs 12:1 (ESV)

My oldest son Bryson has a high school friend who, while in high school, had his welding business. Not a lot of business mind you, but he was paid to do welding. Upon graduation, he hired on with a welding company as an “apprentice” and began the journey to become a formal welder. One of the things I remember Bryson telling me about him was that it would be a while before his friend would actually do any welding in his apprenticeship. What a concept. He would have to learn over time in a dedicated role to gain the knowledge to be a success at welding.

In the mornings I sit here reading God’s Word for information and then I study to gain more understanding and still at the end of my writing, I have more questions. Learning takes time and we should dedicate the time to it to gain true knowledge.

I believe that we should be “lifelong learners” and take the time and have the discipline to truly know something. If I am not disciplined, I will not learn what is truly meant; I will only have information.

I wonder if I am really spending enough time and focus? Am I working at my learning? Are you? Will you be disciplined to gain the knowledge?

There are many temptations in life and they are largely avoidable.

“²³He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.” – Proverbs 5:23 (ESV)

We have the tools for avoiding temptation. Those tools are provided by God and one of them is discipline. When we are focused on God and His commandments, the temptations that darken our door have a hard time making their way into our lives.

Think of a dark room. The light of one single candle allows us to make our way around. We avoid tripping on the furniture. We can get to the door. But, without the candle the evil coffee table breaks our pinkie toe. The doorway into the next room suddenly moves and gets much smaller. What a difference a candle makes, now imagine 100 candles and your prospects of seeing and avoiding are much greater.

Our candles, God, provide the discipline to avoid the pitfalls that come with the darkness. The more discipline we have the more easily we are able to avoid the temptations that come at us.

When have you noticed the most temptation in your life? How are you able to avoid that temptation? Are you going down the wrong path because you cannot see the right one? Are you being led astray due to a lack of discipline?

God does not give up on us. Not 1 chance or a 2^nd or a 3^rd, we are given every opportunity to obey and live according to God’s direction.

“¹¹My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, ¹²for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” – Proverbs 3:11-12 (ESV)

Think of coaches and trainers and tutors. They may be hard on you. Their practices are there to push you and hold you accountable to make you better.

God’s discipline is no different, except more profound in that He does all of this to demonstrate His love for you. God only wants the best for us and therefore He has to make sure that we are on the right path. That path sometimes is disguised and we need hard evidence of where it is, and that is where the discipline provided by God comes in.

We as parents hold our boys to do the right thing and be on the right path and sometimes we have to discipline in order to bring them back to that path. God loves you more than you know and will take whatever action to get you on the right path, even discipline, much to our dismay.

Have you found yourself in a difficult time and wondered why? Looking back, did you wander off the path that God had for you only to be brought back through some discipline of God? Are you aware that God demonstrates His love through discipline?

Think about the having a set of rules or having guidance for things to turn out. Putting together Lego figures from the box is one of those. Reading/looking at how to put together the intricate figure as opposed to dumping in on the table will provide the opportunity to more easily find success.

“¹²Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law,” – Psalms 94:12 (ESV)

God places discipline on us to make our path easier. When following His Word, we are in a position to minimize the difficulty of putting together this thing we call life. We are still going to have difficulty getting through it (have you ever tried to complete a 500 piece Lego structure). However, the discipline/instruction we receive from God will give us the pictures to look at and the description of how to overcome.

Where are you in the area of discipline? Are you stuck trying to do it all on your own? Couldn’t you use the instruction? Are you seeing that discipline equals instruction?