7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
One of the dirtiest words in the English language is self-discipline. It points to personal responsibility for our thoughts, attitudes and actions. It removes the finger-pointing obfuscations; no more twisting and wiggling to get out of the spotlight of responsibility. Self-discipline stands up and is willing to take on the world of self. Great leaders have been able to conquer the outer world; few have conquered the inner world. It is the inner world that has the greatest wind-swept mountains and deepest ocean depths. We do not apply the laws of nature to our inner world consistently, so that what worked yesterday does not necessarily work today. That is because sin continues to degrade our character to the degree we are not being renewed by the Spirit. And it is those small degradations over time that make the inner world so challenging. Those small imperfections become part of the landscape. We begin to move around them rather than moving them. We accept the sin as immovable, unchangeable and permanent. Without the Spirit’s power this might be true, but with that power, height and depth have no meaning. So what is it in the landscape of your inner world that needs to be removed? Perhaps it is a long-standing habit or the results of someone else’s sin that brought pain and a clouding of your vision of God’s image in you. Just remember, God has provided all the power you need to go through it, in a relationship permeated with love. Each of us can choose today to begin the process, guided by the Holy Spirit, of clearing and conquering that inner landscape, removing any obstacles that stand in the way of the full measure of God’s Spirit and grace moving in and through us.
The Arnold Journey 