Getting disciplined

Well this season we want to focus on God and this means getting disciplined.

Even the sound of the word makes me feel like groaning inside but the truth is to have freedom we need to be disciplined. For example if we want to be able to sit down and play any piece of music on the piano we must of first disciplined ourselves to practise and learn.  Its not easy and takes endurance.  I have found this book really good on outlining and explaining the spiritual disciplines for those of you interested in exploring this further.  My husband and I have been reading this book together and encouraging one another in spiritual disciplines.  Its not a particular easy or 'enjoyable' read but very informative and helpful.  (It is after all a book on spiritual disciplines).

I have started another blog as this is about me learning to be disciplined with food.  This is a personal project, I really need to have discipline in this area and feel I'm finally ready to embark on this journey.

In order to put God first I have had to make some hard choices... Although they may not seem hard on the outset, for me personally, I have found it hard.  In essence its about my desires verses Gods so I thought I'd write more about this subject, through my blog...

I found this chapter in the bible a great starting point for examining my sins and helping me to go forward with God.

Romans 6: ¹What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ²By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

 ⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶We know that our old self^[a] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For one who has died has been set free^[b] from sin. ⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 ¹²Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. ¹³ Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

 ¹⁵What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,^[c] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

 ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²²But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.