“For lack of discipline they will die, led astray by their own great folly” (Proverbs 5:23).

“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent” (Revelation 3:19).

“Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord , the one you teach from your law” (Psalm 94:12).

“Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise” (Proverbs 19:20).

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?” (Hebrews 12:7).

Have you guessed what the theme of today’s Verse of the Day is yet?

Not going to say much other than encouraging you to read and meditate on the verses above. Let me close with something I read online recently. I don’t know who wrote it, but it resonates with me.

Everyone must choose one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

Choose your pain.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

Christians prioritize worship. That Christians worship and prioritize worship on the Sabbath day is normal.

Christians serve, give, and tithe. Christians do these things because Jesus told his followers to do so. Serving, giving, tithing is normal for Christians.

Christians obey and submit to God’s word. Christians submit to God’s word and God’s authority because God is God and we are not. Obedience and submission is normal for Christians.

Christians stand for truth with grace even when the culture around them denies those truths. Christians stand for Biblical truth because that’s what their Lord and Savior proclaims. That Christians are different than the people who do not know God is normal.

Christians go through hardship and suffering with grace. It doesn’t mean Christians don’t feel pain or loss. It just means that Christians trust that God knows best, that God wants what is best for them, so they trust God in hardship and suffering.

These are things that the average Christians do because these are things God calls Christians to do.

If these things sound radical it is because the modern church has become so accustomed to nominal Christianity that doing what is normal as a Christian seems radical.

If Jesus said it, Christians do it. That’s normal.

“In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain. His people made no funeral fire in his honor, as they had for his predecessors. Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings” (2 Chronicles 21:19-20).

A king dies. But no funeral fire was made in his honor as had been done for all his predecessors.
A king dies. But was not buried in the tombs of the kings.
A king dies. But to no one’s regret.

Gee.

What the heck kind of life do you have to live where no one cares that you died?
What the heck kind of life does a king have to live where no one will honor the death of a king?
What the heck kind of a man do you have to be that when you die, you die to no one’s regret?

Yet, I’ve known such lives. They certainly were not kings. But they die and no one regrets that they are gone.

No one wants to remember them. No one wants to celebrate them. They’re just glad that they are gone.

Thank God most are not like that. The only thing that matters here on this side of eternity is the quality of relationships you have. That’s it. You are here so that God can use you to make life better for the people around you.

So, here’s the question: Do you make the people around you better? Or do you make them bitter?