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discipline

Blessing in Discipline

by TerryLema

I was complaining the other day and a bit ungrateful. I made the mistake of voicing that to a friend. I should have simply taken my frustration to the LORD.  I needn’t have worried that God would miss my attitude, however. He did not. Before I went to bed that night, I had to get right with Him. I repented and asked forgiveness. He gave it, then helped me to change my attitude the next morning.  Perhaps that is why this next blessing is so important.

“Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD, the man you teach from your law; you grant him relief from days of trouble….” [Ps 94:12-13]

“How Happy!” we are in the midst of discipline. Most of us would shout “Not!” at the end of that statement.

Discipline isn’t usually something that we associate with happiness. And yet, when discipline is received correctly, when we allow ourselves to learn what God wants to teach us, discipline can create happiness in us.

The psalmist tells us how that happiness takes shape after discipline … it becomes “relief from days of trouble.” 

God was gracious to me the other day. He did not allow that ungratefulness to linger in my life. He did not allow it to take root and bring deeper and more lasting problems. In the space of a few hours, He grabbed my attention, poured out a spirit of godly sorrow over my actions, and brought forgiveness to me.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing me in discipline, for restraining my wayward ways and bringing me relief from days of trouble. Amen.

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But God, Part 3

by TerryLema

But God. Heb 12:10-11: “but [God] [disciplines] for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness.” [HCSB]

Discipline, not the most thrilling of words. In the NT Greek, it means “to train up a child, i.e., educate.” It is often translated as instruct, learn, teach, and part of teaching can be punishment.

When my middle grandson was a preschooler, his parents were trying to teach him not to use the word “stupid.” Saying “stupid” brought a short time-out to enforce the instruction. Grandpa and I were visiting with them in California and as we sat around the kitchen table, Grandpa unfortunately used the word “stupid.”  Immediately, of course, little Marcus said, “PapaBob, you can’t say ‘stupid.’ We don’t say ‘stupid’ and you said ‘stupid’ so you have to go to time-out.”

My daughter-in-law smiled and backed up little Marcus, “Yes, PapaBob, time-out.” So, there went PapaBob to the time-out chair, the little kitchen timer counting down the seconds of his discipline, with Marcus sitting there watching and wearing the biggest grin.

God disciplines us. He does it to educate us for a divine purpose that we may share in His holiness. At times that education is reinforced with a bit of punishment when needed, a time-out as it were.

We should never confuse God’s discipline with condemnation, however, for Jesus took our condemnation. Discipline is part of sanctification and designed to conform us into the image of Christ Jesus, God’s dear son.

Thank you, Father, for the discipline that makes me more like Jesus. Amen.

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Even if He …

by TerryLema

Yesterday, I was reminded of those marvelous verses in Jeremiah’s Lamentations that speak of God’s faithful love, and His mercies which come to us new and refreshed every morning. [Lamentations 3:22-24]

Reading a few verses past that, however, is an interesting comment on the discipline of the LORD.

“For the Lord will not reject us forever. Even if He causes suffering, He will show compassion according to His abundant, faithful love. For He does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind.” [3:31-33 HCSB]

Lamentations was written as Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem when it was taken into captivity by the Babylonians. It was a terrible time for the nation of Israel, yet God had a purpose in that captivity. It was a time of chastening because they had fallen into repeated idolatry.

They had ignored warning after warning until God finally did what He promised He would do if they did not repent.  He sent them into Babylon, the most idolatrous nation on the face of the earth. When a remnant emerged 70 years later and returned to their homeland, they never pursued idols again, but remained true to the LORD.

Proverbs 3:11-12 reminds us that God disciplines us in love. (That reminder is repeated in Hebrews 12.) “Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son, and do not loathe His discipline; for the Lord disciplines the one He loves, just as a father, the son he delights in.” [HCSB]

Even when the LORD disciplines us, it is not “forever.” Even when the LORD disciplines us, “He will show compassion according to His abundant, faithful love.” God has a purpose in our discipline – it is always to keep us from falling away from Him, always with the goal of restoring fellowship.

I love what Jeremiah said, “He does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind.”

I remember what my father used to say when he disciplined me, “This hurts me more than it does you.” When I am disciplined by my Father God, I hear those same words.

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God’s Faithful Discipline

by TerryLema

Whenever a passage of Scripture begins with that dangerous word, “therefore,” it means that you must go back to the previous passage to pick up the context of what’s coming next. This morning in Hebrews I opened to chapter 12 and found the familiar statement: “Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet.” [12:12-13 NKJV]

The writer is talking about renewing our spiritual vitality – those hands which hang down in despair and the feeble knees which may no longer hold us up or keep us praying as we should. Realizing that the exhortation began with that dangerous word “therefore,” I looked back at the previous passage.

It is all about the discipline of the LORD. It begins in verse 1 and ends with these words in verse 11. “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” [NKJV]

There surely is nothing joyful about discipline while it is going on. It’s downright painful. It is humiliating to be reminded that we fall short of what we should be as children of God. It is, however, absolutely necessary when we do fall short as children of the Father to respond to God’s discipline correctly.

When we receive the discipline of God as an offering of His love and allow it to train us to be what God wants us to be, it yields, or brings to life, righteousness in us.

How often we sing joyfully, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” without realizing that one of the ways God’s faithfulness is expressed to us is in discipline.

Thank you, Father. Amen.

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