A Note on Discipline

This morning while I was crucifying myself about how I have no self discipline--The Lord playfully interjected with a challenging question: "Enlighten me: How DO YOU plan to achieve any type of discipline outside of me?" The Lord revealed in this that it is foolish of me to believe discipline can come to life out of our fallenness. We treat discipline as though it is OUR sacrifice FOR God--as if it is something we have mastered on our own in five steps and are going to impress Him. In reality, we cannot achieve any type of consistency or anything outside of chaos apart from God. I think we have a misperception of discipline. Consider how many self-help "crash courses" we have on the shelves of bookstores that are designed to help us lay structured foundations in our lives. In reality--all of these are pop-up houses. We usually fail and self-sabotage (hence the reason for such a large market of literature). While these tools are fun and may offer a small, short-lived degree of functionality--we fall into a rut, go back to our old ways and feel destroyed. I don't even think what we are trying to achieve is discipline--I think it is control. These are two separate entities. I would further argue this is what births legalism in the church: The concept that repetition and structure is discipline and sacrifice will make us worthy. He desires mercy, not sacrifice.  Discipline is birthed out of devotion: It is an offering of one's heart, not a sacrifice of one's sinful actions.