Choosing Faith Over FearSample

 Day 6:  Spirit of Love and Self-Discipline 

One of the most powerful pieces of advice I have ever received came from a friend of mine who is also a pastor. He once told me that without discipline, it’s difficult to be a disciple. What I have learned over the years is that when you fight to keep a spirit of self-discipline, that discipline eventually turns into a desire.  

One of the best examples of a spirit of self-discipline and love is Jesus. During Jesus’ last few days on Earth as a man, He showed unconditional love through serving. We read a very specific example in John 13. Jesus did the unthinkable. He chose to wash the feet of his disciples. He took the posture of a servant because of the love that he had for every one of his disciples. He knew that one of them would turn him over to be crucified, yet he still chose to serve. He rejected a spirit of fear and timidity and chose self-discipline and love. 

I don’t know about you, but I want to be more like Jesus every day. We accept a spirit of power, but we choose a spirit of love and self-discipline. We choose to love our neighbors. We choose to reject worldly beliefs, and we choose to even love our enemies. The best way to have a spirit of love and self-discipline is through serving.

Focus: Love serves. To serve you have to have discipline. Working in ministry for as long as I have, if I can be honest, most people are not that excited to serve for the first time. It actually almost seems like a burden to them. However, almost every person that has the discipline to serve ends up loving the opportunity to serve. They end up with a genuine desire to serve, to pray for, and to encourage their neighbor. My challenge for you today is to start serving someone. I want you to practice a discipline of going out of your way and loving on someone by serving them.