Worse than the humorous way we stereotype it …

Few people like talking about self-discipline because so many of us don’t want to exercise it, preferring to indulge our desires, yet a lack of self-discipline in our lives can cause great harm to ourselves and others.

Society has a habit of laughing at what is good, or best, for us human beings. We joke about exercising or “going to the gym,” make fun of people who conscientiously and consistently practice a diet of healthy nutrition, and in other ways are committed to restraining themselves on purpose. That’s because self-discipline not only takes persistent effort, it requires denying some wants and desires that we don’t want to deny ourselves of.

In that case, many people adopt the attitude and behavior of a lady in Texas I know who lacks emotional self-control and insists on “verbally vomiting” on anyone around her whatever she thinks, without consideration of others. She has, on many occasions, boasted very loudly and publicly that anyone around her will “know what she thinks” and if they don’t like it, “that’s their problem.”

It’s really her problem, a problem of self-discipline.

Dr. Daniel Amen, one of America’s leading psychiatrists and neuroscientists (and a Christian), says many people go to counseling because of people in their lives who (need but) won’t go to counseling.

True!

I routinely counsel couples and families where a spouse or someone in the family refuses to develop a habit of self-discipline, with the result being their inability to manage their thinking, which leads them to be unable to appropriately regulate their emotional highs and lows, and everyone else has to “walk on eggshells” to avoid setting them off.

People who lack self-discipline harm themselves in many ways, from their lack of self-discipline resulting in separation from God, ruined relationships, seemingly perpetual drama and conflict in their friendships, conflict in the workplace, and personal mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health problems that can be serious and even become life-threatening.

Proverbs 25:28 states, “A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.” In those times, a strong wall was all that protected a city from its enemies who would want to destroy it, and everyone in it. The wall protected them from ruin and destruction, and self-control and self-discipline protect us from the way we would ruin our lives, and harm others with our lack of discipline.

People give themselves to such reckless living because they see not exercising self-discipline as a means to a “greater happiness.” Daniel Akst, in a secular article called, “Who’s in Charge Here?” wrote, “Life in modern Western cultures is like living at a giant all-you-can-eat buffet offering more calories, credit, sex, intoxicants, and just about anything else one could take to excess than our forebears might ever have imagined. With more possibilities for pleasure and fewer rules and constraints than ever before, the happy few will be those able to exercise self-control.”

And that’s partly why God makes self-discipline a serious issue for us.

Self-discipline is a God-given means for our being able to cooperate with God to have the fullness of life He really intends for us.

“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life,” John 10:10.

So, when we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and enter into a covenant relationship with Him, we become a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), one in which God has gifted with a much needed capacity for self-discipline so that we can experience that rich and satisfying life Jesus has for us:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline,” 2 Timothy 1:7.

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives,” Galatians 5:22-25.

So, if we are new creatures in Christ, and if we really want to experience that rich and satisfying life Jesus offers us, we must make the practice of self-discipline a daily practice of our lives:

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Titus 2:11-13.

Scotty