(Hebrews 12:11-13 NIV) No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. {12} Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. {13} “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
Everyone likes to be accomplished. We like the praise that accompanies the completion of a project. We enjoy knowing that people think well of us. We like knowing that we are on track and doing the will of God.
We are God’s garden. Gardens will not grow properly if they receive too much rain or sunshine. A delicate balance must be achieved in order to produce the best crop. A life filled with only praise is just as bad as a life filled only with criticism. We humans require a finely balanced diet of praise and correction. Without that balance our lives deteriorate into a sickly garden instead of the fruitful life God has called us to live.
Discipline is not a pleasant thing to undergo. Scripture agrees that it is a painful process. We cannot live properly without it. It is the balancing force of God’s praise that allows us to live according to his will.
Every Christian will experience the Lord’s discipline. It is a biblical fact. We are imperfect beings trusting in the grace of God to get us through. If we need grace (an undeserved favor) it’s because we have failed in some area. We have not reached the plateau of perfection because we are still in bodies of flesh that have a sinful bent.
Of course, we surmise, everyone needs discipline…like sister so & so or brother you know who. “I’ll pray for THEM to be able to handle that discipline when God disciplines them.” In reality we know that if we are thinking about discipline it is probably because God’s Spirit is touching us, coaxing us to consider our own lives.
When we finally reach the conclusion that “Yes, it was me that God wanted to discipline”, our first feeling is usually depression. We thought we were doing well. We thought we were growing in Christ. We thought we were submissive to God’s will for our life. How could we have been so lacking?
In Hebrews chapter 12 God not only informs us that every one of us will experience discipline but why. He loves us. Discipline is the result of love not hatred. Its goal is inclusion not exclusion. Its focus is not to elevate our shortcomings to the forefront of our mind but to expose weaknesses in order to make us strong in those areas.
(Romans 8:1-2 NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, {2} because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
God has no desire to condemn us. He wants us to grow in the freedom of his Spirit. God knew that no list of rules could ever bring life. Rules are established for those who do not follow rules. He isn’t sitting around waiting for us to make a mistake so he can punish us. His goal isn’t to force us to conform to a list of rules. He is actively involved in our lives exposing problem areas so he can teach us how to live better and more productive lives.
When God taps us on the shoulder and shows us an area of our life where we have failed we should approach this problem knowing that he has done so out of love for us. We can be confident that it is his will to help us overcome this fault. With him helping us we can know that we will eventually be victorious. He is in the process of healing us in this area. Although our natural instinct is to shrink away from God and ignore the problem it is best to simply trust God to help us deal with the problem to make us better Christians. Instead of putting off God, let’s put off sadness and sorrow until tomorrow.
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