Firmly rooted trees

Established, strong and steady

Embrace discipline.

This morning I looked over my yearly reading plan, deciding where to read next as I read the whole Bible this year. A thought came: "You shouldn't think that way. You're just checking off boxes." Then another thought, based on scripture: "Write down the vision and make it plain...." A yearly reading plan is a way of making the vision plain so I can run with it. Without a plan the odds of me reading the whole Bible this year are next to zero. Just like anything, daily Bible reading can become a dead ritual if we lose sight of why we do it. But that doesn't mean we should stop reading every day. It means we need to remember our motivation.

Today my Word journey included a word study on ritual versus discipline. Encyclopedia Britannica defines ritual as: "the performance of ceremonial acts prescribed by tradition...." Ritual lacks motivation. It's something I do...just because that's what you do. Jesus didn't have much good to say about tradition and ritual. He was after disciples. That's the origin of the word discipline - it's "instruction given to a disciple."

Discipline is motivated by love. It is very different from punishment. Though they are listed as synonyms in some places, God makes a clear distinction. He says in Hebrews 12, "The Lord disciplines the one He loves...." 1 John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear involves punishment...." This is not a contradiction when you see how these words are similar, but not the same. In a nutshell:

(summarized from dictionary.com, synonyms for punish): Punish, correct, discipline refer to making evident public or private disapproval.
To punish is to inflict…with little or no expectation of correction or improvement.
To correct is to reprove…with the idea of bringing about improvement.
To discipline is to give…what will educate or establish useful habits.

Daily Bible reading is a useful habit, not a dead ritual. The Word is spiritual food. You have a daily habit of feeding your body. Make sure your spirit is getting the same treatment: Psalm 1, Hebrews 12:11-13