Proverbs 5:21-23 "For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast. For lack of discipline, they will die, led astray by their own great folly.” Today's episode talks about how everything we do is in full view of the Lord. It talks about how God does what is best for us even if we don't understand His plan. It also talks about how discipline can let the 7 deadly sins enter our lives, and we don't even realize we invited them in. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Discipline & The Seven Deadly Sins
Proverbs 5:21-23 "For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast. For lack of discipline, they will die, led astray by their own great folly.”
Today I couldn’t seem to come up with a verse for the episode. This is unusual, although it does happen sometimes. I decided to go to the proverbs since that is a book full of instructions on how we should live. I figured that would have some good advice for us. This verse came right after verse 20, which says, “Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife? Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?” This is where the verse above begins, "For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast. For lack of discipline, they will die, led astray by their own great folly.”
This verse does not just apply when we are talking about adultery. We should remember this all day as we go throughout our days. Everything we do is in full view of the Lord, and He examines our paths. I think we forget this sometimes. I think we truly believe that we can hide things from the Lord. If we aren’t thinking about Him, He is not thinking about us. Kind of like when we are kids, we think if we do something when our parents’ backs are turned then they won’t know what we did. Guess what, they always know. Parents are much smarter than we give them credit for. This is something I don’t think we truly understand until we become parents. Once we become parents and we get an inside look at what it is like, then we gain a much greater understanding of our parents and what we put them through.
I think it helps us to understand our relationship with God as well. When we are a child, we feel as though our parents are just doing things because they can or because they like to punish up. We think they take things away because they don’t want us to have any fun or because we like to see them suffer. However, once we become parents, we realize that they were trying to protect us, or they were trying to teach us important life lessons. Once we have our own children, or maybe we don’t have our own children, but we have the benefit of hindsight, then we can see they were trying to prepare us to enter into the world as independent adults.
The same is true with God. We don’t always understand what His plan is and why He does the things He does. Sometimes it can seem like He is punishing us, and other times it seems like He doesn’t care that we are suffering. We know He could take away our pain, and we don’t understand why He doesn’t. Although, usually, when we have the benefit of hindsight, we can see that we need to go through what we went through in order to become the person we are today. I don’t know if “needed” to go through is the right word or not. Sometimes we allow our kids to go through hard things so they come out stronger on the other side. Did we “need” to let them go through it? Not necessarily; there are parents who shield their kids from disappointment, and yet their kids grow up to become independent adults too. They just might not be as resilient as the kids who were allowed to experience the pain of disappointment.
When we have children, they do not come with an instruction manual, so we are all just doing the best we can with what we have been given. The same is not true with God. He is perfect. He is the perfect father. He knows what is best for us, even if we disagree. He knows when we need to experience the pains of our mistakes, and He knows when it is okay to save us from some of our mistakes. Sometimes watching our children suffer through the pains of our mistakes is too much for us to handle, and we rush in to save them. God doesn’t need to do this. He has the benefit of seeing all the good that will come out of it, so He can watch us suffer in the short term so we can gain all the benefits in the long term. We are not blessed with that foresight. We struggle to see our kids struggle, and we want to save them from it.
I am guessing someone really needed to hear that today, as that is not at all what I thought I would be talking about today. What really stood out to me in the verse above was the last line, “For lack of discipline, they will die, led astray by their own great folly.” This is something no one really wants to hear, especially me. I have been struggling with discipline over the last few years. I was really good at it for a while, and then I think I stopped doing all the things that helped me be good at it. One reason lack of discipline can be so harmful to us is because it lets the deadly sins creep in. You know the ones I am talking about, pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. When we are not disciplined, these creep in ever so slowly and quietly.
I know they have been in my life for the last few years. I tell myself God doesn’t care if I eat this cookie, and maybe he doesn’t. However, is it just that one cookie, or is it half the box of cookies? Is that cookie leading me into gluttony? If I am not disciplined with my eating, I can easily fall into gluttony. I actually believe I have been partaking in gluttony a lot over the last two years, as my clothes just keep getting tighter and tighter. I used to be good about enjoying a cookie at times but not having them all the time. I was good about eating pretty healthy and yet enjoying some cake at a celebration. However, my discipline with food seems to have disappeared in recent years.
If we are not disciplined in many areas, then we will struggle with these sins. For instance, if we don’t take captive our thoughts like it says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, then we can struggle with pride, greed, wrath, envy, and lust. We think that we can’t control our thoughts, and this is simply not true. Yes, you can’t control when a thought comes into your head. However, you can control whether or not you entertain that thought. You can take captive your thoughts and make a conscious choice not to keep thinking about that thought. You can change the thought to one that is not attached to these sins. For instance, if you see a beautiful woman or man, you might first have a lustful thought. However, you can consciously change that thought to an innocent one. If you have a thought about how you envy your neighbor for getting a new car, you can change that thought to say you are happy for them and that God is blessing them. You might not feel that way at the moment, but if you say it, you will begin to think that way.
I am sure all of us want to spend eternity in heaven. I don’t think you would be listening to a podcast named Walk Boldly With Jesus if you didn’t care about God and spending eternity with Him. Do we really want to put our eternity in jeopardy because we aren’t willing to have a little discipline while we are here on Earth? I know that discipline is not easy; believe me, I do. However, the good news is that we are not in this alone. All we need to do is have the desire to do better and then bring it to the Lord. If you are Catholic, bring this lack of discipline to the priest in confession. Bring the deadly sins that are attached to your lack of discipline to confession as well. Ask the Lord for help in overcoming them, and He will give you the strength. If you are not Catholic, you can take your struggle to the Lord and to your minister if you would like. Talk to the Lord about where your struggles are and where you getting caught up, and the Lord will help you.
The first step in change is realizing that there is a problem. I never really put two and two together before that my lack of discipline was leading me into a struggle with the seven deadly sins. I never realized that by not exercising discipline I was allowing those sins to creep into my life and to get comfy and to start directing my life in some ways. I can see where the Lord is talking directly to me this morning. I hope you can see where He might be talking to you as well. We can’t change what we don’t see. I am grateful for this eye-opening message this morning, as I now can start to be more aware of the consequences of my lack of discipline and why it matters if I eat that cookie or not, why it matters if I waste that time or not. Our choices matter. As it says in the verse above, “For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths. The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast. For lack of discipline, they will die, led astray by their own great folly.” Do we want our lack of discipline to lead us astray?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we thank you for being the perfect Father to us. We thank you for knowing when we need to struggle through and when you can save us from the struggle. Lord, we thank you for waking us up this morning to one big reason why discipline is so important. We repent of letting these sins creep into our lives, and we resolve to be more aware going forward. Lord, we know we can only do this with your help. We ask you to help us develop more discipline. We ask you to give us the tenacity we need to keep trying to be disciplined, even when we fail over and over again. We want to spend eternity with you, Lord. Please help us get there. We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you would like to dive deeper into how to walk more boldly with Jesus, I hope you will join my mentoring group that is starting in January. I will go over topics such as prayer, growing closer to the Lord, reading scriptures, hearing the Lord’s voice, walking in the confidence that you are a beloved child of God, and learning what it really means to have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of you. It is going to be a great way to learn how to live your faith more. If you would like more information, click on the link below or go to my website, walkboldlywithjesus.com. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!
The word from the Lord today is, “I call you. I encourage you. I thirst for you, yet you do not step forward; you step backward. I urge you to step forward, not hinder all that I have for you. For there is more that I long and ache to give you. This is a time of great graces. I want you to grow in leaps and bounds. My mercies are tremendous. My grace, my call, my gifts to you are great. Don’t refuse any of them. Let yourself be free to become much more than you can ever dream of. I have promised; I have given you my Spirit. I do not renege on my promises or hold back my Spirit from you. Let your light shine for me. There is enough darkness in the world. Let the light that is within you from me shine on others. Be not afraid to speak words of hope, love, and peace. Be my witnesses to the love that I have to give to them.”