Discipline Without Drudgery
by Ravi Zacharias
Hardly anyone likes the word “discipline.” It is both the blessing and the bane of our lives. Discipline always seems like a weight around our necks. But if one can only see the need for and the fruit of discipline, one can understand why it offers such great rewards. Think of the athlete who disciplines his or her body for the big race. Think of the discipline of study before an exam and the rewards of success. Think of the labor of love and the victory of reaping a harvest after sowing healthy seeds. Think of honoring God with everything you have and the peace that it brings. The Lord tells us that he disciplines those he loves (see Hebrews 12:6; Revelation 3:19); by implication, then, the undisciplined life is an unloved life.

There remains one major warning to be stated about the will. It is this: the more one surrenders convictions and neglects discipline, the more one gradually changes one’s own hungers and desires. There is an old adage that says, “When you sow a thought you reap an act; when you sow an act you reap conduct; when you sow conduct you reap character; when you sow character you reap a destiny.” History is full of faltering wills that have reshaped the future with immeasurable impact. Let’s examine just one illustration.

When David was battling the Philistines, he felt terribly homesick and wished he could have a single drink of water from his well in Bethlehem. Three of his choicest warriors in a cloak-and-dagger operation got behind enemy lines and stealthily reached the well. They filled a pitcher they had brought with them for the purpose and stole back out, unnoticed, returning to the place where David was, wishing he could be home. One can imagine the inner thrill they felt as they approached him. They took the pitcher out from under their cloaks, poured out a goblet of water, and said, “Here, David—all the way from your well in Bethlehem.” But David paused. When he realized that they had risked their lives to get him that one drink of water, he took the goblet and, in a dramatic illustration, poured the water onto the ground, saying that he could not accept a gift that had jeopardized the lives of others in order to bring him delight. The soldiers were left speechless (see 2 Samuel 23:15–17).

It was a noble act on the part of the king. As I read it, I wondered, “What would have happened if David had reacted the same way when he saw Bathsheba?” The answer is that much of Old Testament history would have changed. But sadly, David’s will failed him that time, and the consequences for him and others were disastrous.

We can each recall moments like this in our own lives—moments when our response should have been different from what it was.

A disciplined life that leads to the power to say no eluded David. That one choice led him to make other choices that were devastating to a compromised life and created an appetite for all the wrong things. G. K. Chesterton once said that there are many angles at which you can fall and only one angle at which you can stand straight. The next time you think about the power of your will, think not just of the immediate choice but of all the other compromises to which one ill-advised choice could lead.

From The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives by Ravi Zacharias