Day 297: God's Discipline

Hebrews 12:3-11

Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. 4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin. 5 And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children?He said,

“My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you.

6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”

7 As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? 8 If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. 9 Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? 10 For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. 11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

Now I know we’ve all been in trouble before, by our parents/guardians, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, coaches. Maybe I’m just speaking for myself when it comes to being in trouble by everyone. I’m told it takes a village to raise a child and I turned out fine. However that’s not the point. We all know what discipline feels like one way or another. I can speak for everyone when I say it’s not fun, we don’t like it. The big kicker is when our parents discipline us, because they say they are doing it because they love us. Now when I was younger I was not here for any of it, I did not want to hear it. My mother was a firm believer in “spare the rod, spoil the child” with that being said, there was physical punishment. Every time we would get in trouble, when my mom was done whooping us, she would talk to us and tell us that she was only doing it because she loves us. Little did I know how much that discipline and correction would affect the person I became as I grew up. What I failed to realize is that this discipline was rooted in love, she could have easily let me do what I wanted, not corrected me, and watched me become something I was never meant to be. But she loves me too much. I did not understand it then but now I know that my parents corrected and disciplined me literally because they love me. They did not want me to grow up wild and not knowing the difference between right and wrong. They raised me the best they knew how, and I turned out great. Proverbs Proverbs 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” My parents raised me right and I I grew I learned to appreciate that discipline, because it gave me direction and helped shape me into the person I am today. When we put that into context, how much more does God love us? He loves us immeasurably more than our parents ever could.

God disciplines us in the same way that our earthly father discipline’s us. God loves us so much He is going to correct us, He is going to discipline us, He is going to make sure that we stay on the right track. I love that the scripture labels these as encouraging words, because it is very encouraging. It’s encouraging to know that we have someone that loves us so much that He will not allow us to go down the wrong path if He can help it. Not only that but He gave us the Holy Spirit as a guide, giving us direction and correction. Sometimes we deliberately disobey Him, but that’s another topic for another day. God has a path laid out for each of us, and sometimes on that path we will have to endure times of correction and discipline. God does not discipline us because He’s mean and evil. No He disciplines us to train us, to help us, to teach us how to live a life that is pleasing to Him. We learn a lot from our moments of discipline, we learn a lot about our mistakes and the things we do. However we also learn that God loves us so much that He will not watch us destroy ourselves. He will not stand back and watch us ruin ourselves. No, God is too invested in us, we are His children. Imagine if God did nothing when He saw us straying away. Is that really love? God corrects those He loves, and He has blessed us with parents and guardians to do the same.

The thing about discipline is it doesn’t feel good. It’s painful, it hurts but sometimes it takes pain to grow. It takes pain to mature, I might have gotten in trouble for things when I was younger but I knew not to do them again. No, God’s punishment will not feel good, correction isn’t the easiest thing to take in, but it allows us to grow. It teaches us something. But after it all we will flourish, we will know what it is like to live right. To walk with Christ. It’s a part of growing up. We may not understand it now but when we look back we will be eternally grateful for God’s correction.

All this to say, don’t overlook God’s rebuke. He is not going around constantly looking for ways to punish us, in fact He is constantly drawing us closer to Him. He is raising us to be His children and He will discipline and punish us as He sees fit because He loves us. He loves us enough to hurt our feeling for a little while in order to make sure that we are walking and living how we are supposed to. He’s willing to hurt our feelings for a little while in order to teach us and raise us. Sometimes love is brutally honest and cannot spare our feelings, but it doesn’t mean that it is not love.

Reflection

1. Can you think of a time when your parents punished you and you can look back and be grateful for it now?
2. Can you agree that discipline is rooted in love?

Prayer Time

Take the time to pray to God and thank Him that He is a God of correction and that He loves us so much that He will correct us. Pray in whatever way you feel led. Just have a conversation with God.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 298!

Day 105: Make Some Noise

Psalms 98:4

Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.

Psalms 33:3

Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

Psalms 47: 1

O clap your hands, all peoples; Shout to God with the voice of joy.

Psalms 5:11

But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You.

Psalms 66:1-2

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious.

By definition a psalm is a song of praise or a hymn. Throughout the book of Psalms we are told to praise God. Shout for joy, exult Him, worship Him, for He is worthy to be praised. There are so many things to praise God for, the list is neverending. Sometimes we just have to stop and vocalize it, we have to shout out to God in joy. We just cannot hold it in, we have to praise God. God has done so must for us that we should constantly praise Him, we can never praise Him enough or thank Him enough for all the things He has done.  The best thing is that, there doesn’t have to be a great event that takes place in our lives for us to praise God. Everyday we wake up, every breath we take, every moment is an opportunity to praise God. It’s the little things that count more than we think. Thanking and praising God for even the smallest thing because He is responsible even for that. There is always a reason, there will never not be a reason to praise God. (double negative, I know)

Another word that stands out in these scriptures is ‘joy’. Shout to God with a voice of joy. God is just so good that sometimes you just walk around smiling for the sole reason that God is just amazing. The joy of God is so deep within us that even our darkest moment can be turned into an opportunity to praise God. THere is so much joy in the Lord, sometime we have to just stop and say thank you. I do it all the time when I’m walking down the street, sometimes I just have to stop and take in everything God is doing, or has done. I take in the beauty of His creation and I just have to say thank you. I can’t hold it in or wait, I just have to say thank you.

I think we sometimes save our praise for the moments when something happens that is ‘worthy to be praised’. But we serve a God that is worthy to be praised every second of everyday. We don’t have to wait until He’s done something, we can praise Him in advance. We don’t have to wait until we are out of the valley, we can praise Him while we’re down there. We can cry out, in our moment of despair and God will hear us.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is of Paul and Silas singing and praying in prison.

Acts 16: 25-26

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened.

There’s a miracle in the praise. Paul and Silas had been thrown in prison for spreading the message of Christ. They get in prison, and start to pray and sing to God in the midnight hour. They continue to lift their voices to Him in praise, despite their situation. The people who threw them in prison were hoping it would shut them up, but it did more than that. It led them to prayer, and songs of praise.  Prayer is a way in which we praise God as well. God heard their cries, he heard their prayers, he heard them in the midst of that prison. They did not care who was around, they lifted their voices and praised God anyway. And He lifted those prison gates and freed not only them but gave the rest of the prisoners an opportunity to be free. Not only did that happen but the guard gave His life to Christ that night.

GOd is so good and we don’t have to wait to praise, we can priase HIm wherever we are, physically, mentally, or emotionally, He hears our voices and He responds.

Reflection/ Prayer Time

Take the time to praise and thank God for any and everything. No matter what you are going through lift your voice to God, even if it’s hard right now. Shout out to God in praise. This may look different to everyone, but whatever that means to you, it is between you and God. Just lift Him up today. He is worthy.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Make  sure you share this with someone and come back tomorrow for day 106!