Pastor YC "Psalm 94: 良药苦口"

良药苦口利于病，忠言逆耳利于行。

PS 94:12-13 Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD, the man you teach from your law; you grant him relief from days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked.

The graph on the left shows startling research results: self-discipline is better predictor of academic performance compared to IQ.

Although I have no expertise to debate the validity of this result, it does brings my mind to 2 things:

1) God disciplines us for our own good. We must learn to delight in His loving discipline and resist from running away. If success is determined by how well disciplined we are, then surely one of the goal of our lives would be to learn delaying gratification.

2) Self-discipline is somewhat of a incongruous and contradictory term. We do cannot have "self"-control unless it was first learned through external discipline or stimulus. So it does not begin inside but instead it starts "outside". External stimulus and discipline forms in us patterns that eventually becomes "self"-discipline.

Psalm 94 portrays God in his justice. He not only defines what justice is, he also executes judgement.

"Let's not be run away from God when we do wrong but rather run to Him so that we can be refined."