I’m not an early morning person. Getting out of a warm bed in the dark isn’t very appealing. When I wake up, I have a choice to make: embrace the day with all its God-given potential, or be lazy and simply roll over and drift back to sleep.

Have you ever noticed how quickly things get off track when you don’t do what you’re supposed to do? My normal morning routine looks something like this: take care of our pets, exercise, read my Bible and pray, get ready for the day. But when I choose to sleep in, I end up having to skip my exercise or postpone my Bible study until later. Yes, sleep is important – but discipline has a place in my life too.

Discipline is defined by the Encarta Dictionary as: training to ensure proper behavior, calm controlled behavior, or conscious control over lifestyle. Remember Daniel? He exercised discipline in his life. It wasn’t something he was born with. No, it was something he developed.

When Daniel was made president over King Darius’ princes, the news didn’t go over too well. The princes were jealous.

They couldn’t find any flaws in his character. No black marks in his past. So they formulated a plan around the one thing they could count on – his devotion to God. They had the king sign a sneaky decree:

They didn’t have to wait long. The discipline Daniel had developed from a young age continued:

It didn’t matter what the king had decreed, long ago Daniel had put the Lord first and was determined to continue worshipping Him even if it cost him his life. This wasn’t the first time his life had been in danger.

Rewind several years to when Daniel was a youth. When he was captured and taken to Babylon, Daniel had already made a commitment to continue obeying God’s commands:

Even at that time, Daniel was willing to risk his life out of love for God. His relationship with God was very important and he was intentional about spending time with Him every day.

As we fast-forward back to a praying Daniel, we see this discipline continued.  We know the end of the story. Daniel faced the lions, but the Lord shut their mouths so they could not hurt him. The king was ecstatic that Daniel’s God saved him. The jealous princes were thrown into the lion’s den and a new decree was made by King Darius:

You and I probably won’t be taken as prisoners to Babylon or face the lion’s den. But sometimes it can be harder to exercise discipline when things are ‘normal.’