Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 1 Peter 5.8-10

The Good News of the Kingdom
Life in the Kingdom of God is an adventure of knowing the power of God for increasing righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14.17-19). This is what makes the Kingdom of God such Good News. As our vision of the Kingdom and its glorious potential grows in clarity and appeal, we will apply ourselves by every means to seeking and laying hold on that glorious realm for every area of our lives.

This means mastering the various disciplines by which we invest the time God gives us for knowing, enjoying, serving, and glorifying Him. The more proficient and consistent we become in bringing God’s discipline to bear in our souls, relationships, callings, and communities, the more we will realize the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom working in and through us.

Jesus portrayed the Kingdom of God in the most attractive terms: a pearl of great price, a great catch of fish, a fruitful garden, a great treasure, and so forth. He wanted us to want the Kingdom, to desire it with all our soul and strength, and to enter and dwell in that Kingdom through Him. He is the Way into the Kingdom, the Life of the Kingdom, and the Truth which allows us to flourish in the freedom and fruitfulness of the Kingdom of God (Jn. 14.6).

So the Kingdom is truly Good News because, in it, we realize increasingly our full potential as the image-bearers of God, citizens and ambassadors living and working within the realm of His authority and power. Overall, therefore, those who have made the turn into the Kingdom of God know peace and joy that nothing can obscure or destroy.

But this does not mean that our lives in the Kingdom will be completely free of trials.

The inevitability of trials
Jesus promised that we would have trials and tribulation in this life (Jn. 16.33). Such trials are not what we might prefer. Trials, and the suffering that comes with them, can cause us to experience doubts, confusion, disappointment, set-back, and even physical or emotional pain. Why does life in the Kingdom require such experiences from time to time?

The Lord has His reasons, and they all relate to His good and perfect plan for helping us to become more like Jesus Christ (cf. Rom. 8.28; Heb. 12.3-11). The trials we can expect to endure in the Kingdom of God are of various sorts, including temptation (in fact, the word for “trial” and “temptation” the same in the Greek), opposition or persecution, physical distress (such as ill health, loss of employment or property), or betrayal or other interpersonal trials. Sometimes our trials are self-inflicted, as when we fall through temptation into a life of sin, or when we act imprudently. At other times our trials come as a result of the bad intentions or decisions of others. Still other trials are the result of Satan being allowed to exert himself against us in one way or another, as in the case of Job.

God uses all the trials we must endure to shape us more into the image of Jesus Christ, so that, as Peter observed, after we have suffered a bit we may be perfected, established, strengthened, and settled in our course of Kingdom living. As we train our bodies for obedience, using the various disciplines we have been considering in this series, we will find, at times, that something in our discipline is lacking. We keep stumbling or regressing, or we aren’t growing or bearing fruit as much as we’d hoped. At such times God may step in to refocus, redirect, or reshape the course of our lives by leading us into some trial. Then we need to be prepared to respond in ways the allow us to see these trials for what they are and to endure them so as to gain the benefit God intends.

Provisional disciplines
Since such trials might be described as provisional – that is, not normal our routine, and only occurring from time to time – we require certain provisional disciplines to deal with them. As we shall see, the effective use of these provisional disciplines requires that others of our disciplines, especially spiritual disciplines, be kept in good and continuous working order.

Provisional disciplines are the special tools in our disciplines tool kit that we haul out only as often as they are needed. Provisional disciplines draw from and are applied in tandem with other disciplines, to help us navigate the Scylla and Charybdis of trials, so that we don’t end up shipwrecked or off course whenever we encounter difficulties of one kind or another. We must master the use of provisional disciplines and keep them in good working order, even if we only require them from time to time.

As in every other area of our lives, so also in times of trial, realizing the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom requires the skilled and timely use of disciplines. In this series we will be considering various provisional disciplines and how they may be specifically and effectively deployed in the face of trials.

Next steps: What are some of the trials and difficulties you might expect to face as you continue seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? How well prepared are you to deal with these challenges? Talk with a Christian friend about these questions.

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, Provisional Disciplines, is part 7 of a 7-part series on The Disciplined Life, and is available as a free download by clicking here. We have prepared a special worksheet to help you begin getting your disciplines in proper shape for seeking the Kingdom. Write to T. M. at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for your free PDF of the “Disciplined Life Worksheet.”

A rightly-disciplined life requires a Kingdom vision, and that vision is centered on Jesus Christ exalted. T. M. has prepared a series of meditations on the glorious vision of Christ, based on Scripture and insights from the Celtic Christian tradition. Order your copy of Be Thou My Vision by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.