When Discipline Becomes Delight

When Discipline Becomes Delight – By Rose Thomas

The first time I heard someone talking about discipline becoming delight, I was aghast. Discipline was painful, shameful, and often discouraging, the very antithesis of delight.

How could discipline become delightful?

As I pondered this question with the Father, I sensed Him asking me to trust His heart. The Bible states that God disciplines those He loves and that His kindness draws men to repentance. God is a good, kind, and gentle Father, and His discipline is unlike anything I have ever experienced.

Galatians 5:16 states that as we yield freely and fully to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, we abandon the cravings of our self-life.

Do you see it?

The key to delightful discipline; is intimacy with Holy Spirit. We change, and are disciplined, as we spend time with and experience the vibrant life and power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul says in Galatians 5: 18, “When you are brought into the total freedom of the Spirit of grace, you will no longer be living under the domination of the law but soaring above it.

When you yield to Holy Spirit, He produces beautiful fruit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. James adds to this picture of delightful discipline when he says, “And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom, and He will give it!”

He does not see your lack of wisdom (or any other character trait) as an opportunity to scold you over your failures, but He will overwhelm your failures with His generous grace. He overwhelms our failures with grace.

You see, when God shines the light on something in our lives that needs to change, we can trust His heart. If we lean into the light, we joyfully discover that yielding to Holy Spirit brings healing, and yielding to Holy Spirit produces good fruit.

God’s intent is always to bless us and cause us to be fruitful. Remember, HE IS FOR YOU! Yield to the Holy Spirit and watch how discipline can turn into delight.