Tag Archives: discipline

WHEN YOUR FAITH WEAKENS

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What do you do when your faith gets weak? How do you pump your faith?

There are several reasons why this may happen – unanswered prayer, persecution, problems, trials…

The Apostle Paul wrote his protege Timothy an encouragement. He mentions that many have forsaken the faith and have even deserted him as he is now in chains for the gospel.

He exhorts Timothy to ‘be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.’ (2 Timothy 2:1)

This will be evident in 3 ways.

Dedication of a soldier

Paul reminds Timothy to endure hardship. (2 Timothy 2:3)

The reason for this exhortation? There will come a time that as we follow Christ, hardships will come our way.

Giving up is not an option. His grace is more than sufficient.

Discipline of an athlete

An athlete competes according to the rules (2 Timothy 2:6).

Otherwise, he will be disqualified and all the months and years of preparation will all be for naught.

Part of the disciplines we’ve been called to imbibe is the discipline of reading His word.

Pastor Bernhard Wewege writes a good blog about this – Taking the 21 day challenge.

Diligence of a farmer

The farmer painstakingly plants and patiently waits.

Paul declares a promise in Galatians 6:9…

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

How do you pump your faith?

Well, after giving the 3 pictures of a Christian to Timothy, he proclaims a simple statement…

Remember Jesus, raised from the dead. (2 Timothy 2:8)

Absolutely simple but definitely not simplistic.  The statement is pregnant with truth.

The reason why we can is because He did.

When He said, “It is finished”, it meant everything that’s required for our faith to last has been accomplished by Him at the cross.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that will sustain you.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Philippians 1:6, NLT)

 

HELPING MAY NOT BE HELPFUL

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My daughter came home the other night sad.

She recently got in the production of SOUND OF MUSIC at Resorts World Manila.  We prayed for it.  We believed God for it.  And God answered our prayers.

Press conferences have begun and she was chosen for the first one.

But for the one coming up this Saturday, someone else was chosen to be there.

She felt so sad. (Which is a huge understatement.)

But rescuing our kids from pain and disappointment can be the quickest response from any parent.

We can…

  • Be a scary stage parent and make a case to include her.
  • Sulk with her in a corner
  • Or see this as an opportunity to grow in character.

We made a choice to pick the 3rd option.

First, God knows what He’s doing.

Second, the production team knows what they’re doing.

Allowing our kids to go through disappointments in life will make them stronger.  It will build certain muscles that will be beneficial for them later on in life.

Remember, helping may not really be helpful always after all.

 

"JUST CHANGE IT!"

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When Ryan was 5 years old, he attempted to disobey his mom (definitely not the first time).

Jenn said, “Ryan, if you disobey me you might not like the consequence I’ll give you.” (Implying that he might get a spanking…)

To this, Ryan quipped, “Mom, if you think I won’t like it, why give it to me?
Let’s just change the consequence.”

Whattakid!

I guess that’s how we respond to God’s discipline at times.  We know how unlikable the consequence will be but we still choose to do it and hope that God  changes the consequences of our disobedience.

Funny story but there’s a lot of truth that can be learned in real life.

“Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.  For He wounds, but He also binds up; He injures, but His hands also heal.” (Job 5:17-18)

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