Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha
One of the hallmarks of leadership is discipline;
the ability to subject certain desires, needs and wants to the goals of
leadership. A leader should be able to subject certain needs, desires and wants
to the goals of providing leadership.
Jesus Christ came to planet earth to manifest God as
well as reconcile lost humanity to God as well as show humanity the way to the Father.
To do this successfully, Jesus Christ subjected himself to great personal discipline.
The Bible records that He humbled Himself to take on human flesh and though
God; Jesus Christ subjected Himself to God and died on the cross, carrying the sins
of estranged and lost humanity in order to reconcile humans back to God. As painful
and shameful as that death on the cross was (considering that Jesus prayed
about it in pains); He still went ahead to the cross so the will of God for Him
and humanity would be done. To God alone be all the glory. Jesus Christ is
indeed Lord.
Secondly, the Bible also records that Jesus Christ
rose a great while before dawn to pray, significantly not even in His house but
in the wilderness – solitary places where he could be alone with God; where He
would not be distracted and He could be alone with God. He also chose the right
time of the day when no one would be looking for Him or He would have people
milling around Him to be attended to. Jesus sure knew how to invest time but
such time investment calls for great discipline. The early hours of the day, especially
what the Bible describes as a great while before dawn are actually the hours
when sleep, I mean real physical sleep is really sweet. I can confidently say
this because I love sleep. I really love to sleep but I am learning to like
sleep because too much sleep is not good for anyone. I pray that God will help
me to sleep when I should sleep and be awake when I should be awake in the
mighty name of Jesus Christ.
For Jesus Christ to sacrifice sleep at that time of the
day is a pointer to how disciplined He was. Also, the fact that He went to
solitary places speaks of far greater discipline, the discipline to separate
Himself from the crowd to invest time to achieve God’s highest plans and
purposes for both His life and humanity.
