The Discipline of Doing
/The Discipline of Doing (week 1)
Ok, so it has officially been a week since I decided that my word for the new year would be discipline. I gotta tell you, it is harder than I thought it would be. Because I have been lacking discipline in so many areas of my life it seems a little overwhelming to tackle them all at once. No need to worry, however, I have a plan. I am going to tackle a different area each week. I am not naive enough to think I will be able to master these things in a week, but it will be my focus, so cut me some slack.
This week I decided to focus on the discipline of doing. This is an idea that originally I thought came to me, personally. Have you heard the saying “don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today”, get ready, I am about to blow your mind. That is actually in the Bible. Who knew?! What sound advice this is for those of us who occasionally choose procrastination.
“Don’t put it off; do it now! Don’t rest until you do.” Proverbs 6:4 NLT
For me, this is usually a battle of the mind. The decision-making process that goes on, should I do the dishes now or wait and hope someone else wants to do them. Should I go down and switch the laundry over or just rewash everything tomorrow? Should I get up and spend time with Jesus or should I continue to hit the snooze button?
All of these decisions and many more go on through our minds each day. If you think about it we are almost constantly making decisions about the person we want to be and the life we want to live. Making choices about what we value, what we put first and what we want to make time for. It can be overwhelming to think about the weight of each decision we make. It seems easier at times to delay, to choose to “think about it later” to “do it tomorrow”.
I have found in my own life the choice to put off comes out of fear. If I choose to put effort into people, into activities and then I fail, what will I do then? How will I handle that rejection or that pain? Here is the question I had to begin to ask myself this week as I focused on what I am doing, What do I value most?
It is the things I value most that I give the most time too. Sadly, I found that in many areas of my life I value myself above anything else. It’s true, so often selfishness takes the cake. My own comfort, my own feelings, my own desires win out, time and time again.
My prayer this week has been two-fold. First, I want to be Kingdom minded. What does that mean? The Kingdom of God is mentioned over 100 times in the Bible, and yet most people don’t know what that is all about! 1 Corinthians 4:20 tells it to us like this, “20 For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.” Living by God’s power! That is the kind of life I want to live, the power of God within me to help me “do” what is pleasing to Him!
My second prayer this week has been to be “on mission”. I want to be purposeful in what I am disciplined to do. For me, that looks like building His church in this city. My prayer is that being on mission would drive me every day, then what I “do” will matter in the Kingdom.
Here is the struggle, how is doing the dishes, laundry, spending time in prayer build the Kingdom and keep me on mission? It is everyday living with an excellent spirit and making room for God to move. Thinking of others, coming into a place where I am in tune with the Spirit of God, when my house is in order it frees me up to keep His house in order.
Listen, friend, what you “do” does matter. In order to be disciplined in what you are doing, so that your world doesn’t revolve around you we must become Kingdom minded.
Maybe you are reading this and you don’t know where to start and you have no idea of what this looks like. I want to invite you to join us at Mercy City this month. We are breaking down the Kingdom into a clear and easy to understand message of prayer.
If you can’t physically be with us, download our app and you can listen online.
Let’s commit to being disciplined in our every day doing. You can do this! This year can be the best year yet, it can be the year that you overcome stress and anxiety and begin to live in joy and abundance! The power of God resides within us to lead us and guide us!
I would love to hear what you are praying for this week so that I can join you in prayer!
