The IMPORTANCE of SELF-DISCIPLINE
June 3
Bible Reading: Job Chapters 31-33
The IMPORTANCE of SELF-DISCIPLINE
"I have made a covenant with my eyes;
why then should I look upon a young woman? Does He (God) not see my ways, and
count all my steps? (Job 31:1, 4)
After
defending his position before his friend, Job speaks about the self-discipline
that he had always maintained so far. Job did not speak anything by way of
boasting, but in answer to the charge of hypocrisy. Job understood that the
spiritual nature of God's commandments reaches to the thoughts and intents of his
heart so Job made certain decisions in his life that evolved out of
self-discipline.
In his final
defense, Job recounted his life of strict moral integrity (Job 31:1–4). He had
been scrupulously honest in all his business dealings (vv. 5–8), had never
committed the sin of adultery (vv. 9–12), had treated his servants gently and
with respect (vv. 13–15), had met the needs of the poor and needy (vv. 16–23),
had resisted the attractions of material wealth (vv. 24–25), had not fallen
into idolatry (vv. 26–28), had not engaged in any form of personal revenge (vv.
29–30), was careful to entertain strangers (vv. 31–32), did not conceal his
sins from God (vv. 33–34), and did not abuse his stewardship of fields and
properties (vv. 35–40).
Job’s only
regret was that God seemed not to have noticed his life of integrity and
self-discipline (vv. 35–37). However, we know that God had noticed that Job "was blameless and upright, and one who
feared God and shunned evil" (Job 1:1), and the end of the story of
Job was much better than the beginning.
As a child
of God, it is very important for us to maintain self-discipline in our lives.
It is very easy to get tempted by Satan and the pleasures that the world has to
offer us. However, the path of sin is very slippery (Psalms 73:18) and we have
to set some guards in our lives early on so that we are not drawn away by our
desires and enticed to sin (James 1:13-15).
Early on in
his ministry in 1948, the famous evangelist Billy Graham and his core
leadership team took certain decisions for maintaining self-discipline in four
areas listed below:
- Financial Accountability: Billy’s team committed themselves
to integrity and openness in all their financial dealings.
- Sexual Indiscretions: Due to the possibility as well as
the appearance of sexual indiscretions, Billy and his team committed together
to guard themselves against sexual sin. Billy committed to never be alone with
a woman other than his wife, and made other commitments safe-guarding this
purity.
- Model of evangelists working in
concert with the local churches: Billy’s team committed to work with the local churches
wherever possible in the proclamation of the Gospel.
- Finally, Billy’s team noted that many evangelists inflate their numbers to validate their ministry. They committed to doing their best in accurately reporting crowd size and decisions. To do otherwise was rooted in pride and had no place in the proclamation of the Gospel.
Due to their adherence to these four major areas of self-discipline, Billy Graham has been used by God to draw millions into God’s kingdom. Let us also realize the importance of self discipline and make the following decision with Apostle Paul: "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." (1 Cor. 9:27)
