Celebration of Discipline

I just started reading an incredible book.  It's called 'Celebration of Discipline' by: Richard Foster.  I'm actually going through this book with my accountability partner.  We both expressed that we needed more "discipline" in our lives.  If you haven't read this book, please do.  Take my word for it, you will feel this book.  And I mean in a bitter/sweet sort of way through conviction.

Have you ever read a book where you feel like it was written for you?  Like every word on every page was directed to you?  Well that is this book for me (so far).  I literally have underlined every sentence on every page; it seems like every word is striking right at the bareness of my soul.  I want to share with you a little of what I'm reading.  Some of this will be directly quoted from Richard Foster.  (In fact most of it will be direct quotes, I'm only inputting some personal notes.)



Sin as a condition works its way out through the "bodily members," that is, the ingrained habits of the body (Rom. 7:5).  And there is no slavery that can compare to the slavery of ingrained habits of sin.
Heini Arnold writes, "We...want to make it quite clear that we cannot free and purify our own heart by exerting our own 'will.'"  In Colossians Paul lists some of the outward forms that people use to control sin: "touch not, taste not, handle not."  He then adds that these things "have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship" (Col. 2:20-23).  "Will worship"---what a telling phrase, and how descriptive of so much in our lives.  The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over sin by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshipping the will.  Isn't it ironic that Paul looks at our most strenuous efforts in the spiritual walk and calls them idolatry, "will worship"? 
Willpower will never succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin.  Emmet Fox writes, "As soon as you resist mentally any undesirable or unwanted circumstance, you thereby endow it with more power---power which it will use against you, and you will have depleted your own resources to that exact extent."  Heini Arnold concludes, "As long as we think we can save ourselves by our own willpower, we will only make the evil in us stronger than ever." 
"Will worship" may produce an outward show of success for a time, but in the cracks and crevices of our lives our deep inner condition will eventually be revealed.  Jesus describes this condition when he speaks of the external righteousness of the Pharisees.  "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks...I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter" (Matt. 12:34-36).  You see, by dint of will people can make a good showing for a time, but sooner or later there will come that unguarded moment when the "careless word" will slip out to reveal the true condition of the heart. 
You see, willpower has no defense against the careless word, the unguarded moment.  The will has the same deficiency as the law---it can deal only with externals.  It is incapable of bringing about the necessary transformation of the inner spirit. 
When we despair of gaining inner transformation through human powers of will and determination, we are open to a wonderful new realization: inner righteousness is a gift from God to be graciously received.  The needed change within us is God's work, not ours.  The demand is for an inside job, and only God can work from the inside.  We cannot attain or earn this righteousness or the kingdom of God; it is a grace that is given. 
"He who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life" (Gal. 6:8). 
We do no more than receive a gift, yet we know the changes are real.  We know they are real because we discover that the spirit of compassion we once found so hard to exhibit is now easy.  In fact, to be full of bitterness would be the hard thing.  Divine Love has slipped into our inner spirit and taken over our habit patterns.

And I will end with this...

Our world is hungry for genuinely changed people.  Leo Tolstoy observes, "Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."  Let us be among those who believe that the inner transformation of our lives is a goal worthy of our best effort.