The power of a genuine prayer for something to happen or for someone to change can never be overrated. Instead of judging your friends, pray for them. Prayer is one mighty tool to use to create the change you want. In its purest form, it touches the heart of God and moves His hands to do the miraculous. And God always listens to a prayer said on behalf of someone.
When God hears your prayers concerning somebody, He listens. So pray for them. It is called intercession. When you intercede on behalf of someone, asking God to help them have a change of heart, He loves it. This is because God loves it when people change from being bad to good. That’s why He sent Jesus to die for us all
Instead of judging someone, pray for them. Speak to God about them. Ask God to help them see the errors of their ways and stop doing every wrong think they are doing. Give them your prayers instead of judging them.
Your prayer is a cry for mercy to God for them. You are telling God to look upon them with mercy and not on their wrongs.
Instead of the punishment that they should receive for their wrongs, ask the Lord to forgive them and make them new again in His sight, just like Jesus cried on the cross, asking our Heavenly Father to forgive us all. Learn to ‘pray for them.’
Pray as often as you can as the bible encourages to pray always.
Prayer is like preparing a bowl of stew. You first gather your ingredients, get the pot and fire ready and start the process. It takes time to prepare the soup and the process has to be followed if you want the stew done and ready.
Continue to pray and believe God will bring a change in them. Don’t forget our anchor phrase this morning – ‘pray for them.’
May the Lord bless you as you pray for people. Amen.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, fill me with the urge to pray for others instead of judging them. Help me to continue to do this, in Jesus’ mighty name, amen.
Action plan: Who is the first person you think you should start praying for? Ask the Holy Spirit to show you.
It takes the grace of God for you accept discipline with humility. The most natural way you would likely react would be to reject it instantly. Maybe, you spent longer than you should at a friend’s place and your mother grounds you.
“But, it was just 30 minutes” you say to her. Instantly your brows build up a storm on your face, your mouth shoots out, you fold your arms and turn an almost 180 degree away from your mother. This is not how to accept discipline with humility.
“Not just 30 minutes only, you also didn’t wash the dirty plates in the sink before you left,” your mum replies.
Just 30 minutes, but you stayed longer than you should and didn’t wash the plates also.
The first thing you should have said was “I am sorry, mummy.” That’s how to accept discipline with humility. That alone would first make your mother calm down.
“I will wash the plates immediately.” Another sentence that will douse the situation again. Then you can start to give your reasons for staying long, that is if they are tenable. If they are not don’t say anything. Accept discipline with humility.
Saying sorry is a sign of true humility. It shows you are sorry for your actions and are open to making amends for what you have done.
Here is what the bible says about people who are humble
“The Lord hates those who are proud. You can be sure that they will be punished. Psalms 149: 4 ICB.
“God is against the proud but he gives grace to the humble” James 4:6 ICB.
God doesn’t like pride because it is a sin. Pride in your salvation through Christ and as a God’s creation is good. Learn humility; accept discipline with humility.
Being proud is saying that you are above mistakes and therefore can’t and shouldn’t be corrected. As a child, you need to be always corrected.
May God give you a heart that is open to correction. Amen.
Prayer: Lord, give me the spirit of humility through Your Holy Spirit. Teach me to accept discipline with humility. In Your mighty name I pray, amen.
Action point: Remember to always apologise first before giving excuses.
Now that you know what you should do, do it! Do what you should do! What is the change that you need to embrace? What is that thing or those things you need to start doing?
Knowing what to do and not doing it is a sin. Look at it here in the book of James
“And when a person knows the right thing to do, but does not do it, then he is sinning.” James 4:17 ICB.
Refusing to do the right thing shows both arrogance and ignorance of the things of God. Like we learnt in the last post that God hates the proud, God also hates feigned ignorance. So do what you should do.
Sometimes you can pretend to be ignorant of what you are supposed to do so as to fool the other person. You may fool the person, but not God. Remember that He knows and sees all things.
You are also telling God that you are not a sinner and saying God is a liar. But God doesn’t lie
If we say that we have not sinned, then we make God a liar. We do not accept God’s true teaching. 1 John 1:10 ICB
Making the changes that are needed is a sign that you value and respect the other person. Therefore learn to do what you should do.
When you apologise and start to do what you have promised to do, it builds more love between you and the other person. It also speaks well about you. You are seen as truly repentant and humble.
A word of caution though – don’t just do what you should do because you are asked to. Do it because it is the right thing to do. Don’t do it physically while in your heart you are rebelling, grumbling and hating every minute of what you are doing.
Yesterday we began to look at discipline. Today, we will see how you as a child should accept discipline. The first thing you need to know is that your parents love and want the best for you. It’s only a child that is loved by a parent that is corrected and disciplined. So you need to accept discipline as a show of love.
Think of it like this; why would your parents remind you to brush your teeth every night before going to bed? They are not asking you to brush your teeth or that of your sibling or even theirs. It’s your teeth and you will carry them for the rest of your life in whatever condition you put them in.
So, if you brush them twice daily, you will enjoy perfect dental health in future. And if you don’t listen to their advice, you will have bad dental health as well as reap the consequences of it. The consequences include: a bad self-image, rotten teeth and gums, bad breath and more. You see that? So you need to accept discipline as a show of love.
Your parents discipline you out of the love they have for you, not hate like you would like to think. Just like God telling us not sin because sin in the end has consequences that can never benefit us in any way. It can only harm and destroy us.
“If you do good, I will accept you. But if you do not do good, sin is ready to attack you. Sin wants you. but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:7 ICB
Also, knowing discipline is done from a place of love (when you accept discipline as a show of love) gives you the power to grow from being a person that doesn’t know how to do something to someone who does now. When you learn how to arrange and keep your clothes well, you have grown into a well-organised person.
“I correct and punish those whom I love. So be eager to do right. Change your heart and lives. Rev. 3:19 ICB.
Reciprocate the love of your parents by releasing yourself to discipline. And by doing so, you are creating for yourself an adult life filled with excellent values that help add to your society and church. Say to yourself right now: I accept discipline as a show of love.
I pray that your heart will be open and ready for discipline. Amen.
Prayer: Lord, help me to see the actions of my parents towards me in light of the love they have for me. Help me to also obey you and receive your discipline because I know you love me too much to see me remain in sin.
Action Plan: How about apologizing to your parents for disobeying them and thanking them for their love for you.
It’s important to learn how to accept discipline as a child. The word ‘discipline’ is quite common. How many times have you had this word thrown around you by your parents? It must be like forever. Or is it like every 5 seconds you hear them use “discipline” in every sentence they say to you?
How come that’s the only word they are using? Like is that the only word in their dictionary?
How about when God disciplines you? Do you think God is just like your parents too? Well, He is like them and much more than them.
Don’t see discipline as a bad thing. It’s a good thing that will automatically build you up into a matured, responsible and God-fearing person. So you must learn how to accept discipline.
When your parents tell you to arrange your clothes well in your wardrobe, clean your room and take your bath regularly, they are teaching you to be neat in life.
When they discipline you for taking something of theirs without their permission, you are being taught a lesson about taking someone’s thing without permission. If you they don’t do that, you could end up being called a thief outside if you do so outside of the house.
Asking you to brush your teeth every night before you sleep is teaching you good dental hygiene that will increase your chances of having perfect dental health in adulthood.
It may look hard and time consuming, but it’s for your own good. The more time you give towards doing what you are supposed to do, the more it becomes part of you.
“Anyone who loves learning accepts being corrected. But a stupid person who hates being corrected is stupid.” Proverbs 12:1 ICB.
May the Lord give you the grace to receive and embrace discipline at all levels. Amen.
Prayer: Lord, give me a heart that accepts and cherishes discipline. Help me not to refuse it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Action point: What areas have you been rejecting discipline in your life? Think and write them out. Begin to pray for help to do them and do so immediately.
