Discipline

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
"Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize ? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus : not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."

There is one part in here that really sticks out to me. That is "I discipline my body and bring it into subjection". Here on earth if you compete in sports, run marathons or things of that nature you must train continually and discipline your body daily. This verse is not talking about doing those things though. It is talking about disciplining ourselves daily to keep our fleshly bodies in the Lord's will.

How do we discipline our body and bring it into subjection though? For me, this means staying in God's word everyday, praying without ceasing, and surrending my fleshly lusts and desires to Him daily. Ill be honest, there are days that I have failed on doing some or all of these things. Its not that I don't understand the importance of doing them, its just that there are so many things going on that I lose track of time and am exhausted by the end of the day and just pass out. There really are no excuses for not doing all of these things though. I have the desire to grow deeper in the Lord and to stay in His will for my life. If I stop doing daily devotions, or slack off on my prayer life it makes a huge difference. If im not in God's word I will not be renewing my mind daily and will dry up spiritually. If im not praying throughout the day then by the time I lay down to go to sleep I feel a huge weight on me and I need to stop and pray. If i don't lay down my fleshly desires to Him everyday, then the enemy will creep in and fill my mind with them and get me off track. These things are so important and I want to discipline my body into doing all of them every single day without any excuses.

Application:
Tomorrow, I will wake up earlier so that I have more time between the Lord and I, and spend more time in His word and in prayer.