The Discipline Of The Lord

Do Not Regard Lightly the Discipline of the Lord.

God is Holy and always disciplines us for our greatest good. The discipline of the Lord is always difficult and can cause us to not see the purpose of the discipline. There are three primary ways that we take the discipline of the Lord lightly.

Callousness Towards the Lord

A person demonstrates callousness to the Lord by complaining about their difficulty. They fail to endure with integrity the situation that God has allowed to come into our life. We are not accusing God of wrongdoing , but we are believing that He is not doing what you think He should do. We must expect that the Lord will allow us to face difficulties in this life, while at the same time recognizing that He will give us the strength to endure. Embrace difficult times as an opportunity to mature in your faith.

Another way a person demonstrates callousness to the Lord is by running away from the Lord rather than running to the Lord. They will stop reading their Bible, stop praying, stop going to church, and stop all activity that enhances the growth of the Kingdom. They allow their anger to blind them from the love of the Lord. I encourage people that are going through tough times to stay close to God. Be willing to ask others for prayer.

Questioning the Lord

Questioning the Lord demonstrates lack of faith in the Lord. Let me explain. This does not mean that asking the Lord to show you what He is doing in your tough time is wrong thing to do. The wrong question to ask is “why are you letting this happen to me?” They are two different questions. The first is a sincere request to seek God’s purpose for your trial. The second question is one where you are asking God to justify what He is allowing to happen to you. TO seek the Lord’s purpose for your suffering shows a dependency and trust in Him to fulfill His perfect love for you. The second is to say to God, “I don’t trust you, you have to give me a reason why you let this happen.” You will never receive an acceptable answer for the “why” , you will always receive an acceptable answer for the “what are you wanting to do”.

This is like a child asking their parent to justify why they have given them a punishment and not the one they think they should have. The parent appropriates the discipline to bring about the desired result. Although as parents we don’t always get this right, God’s discipline is always right.

Faint when You Are Reproved

When a person pays more attention to their problem than what God is doing in their life they will become immobilized. They will be overcome with fear, despair, and depression. This is a state of hopelessness. God is a God of hope.

We must depend on and expect the strength of God to get us through our difficult time and make us a better person for going through the difficulty. When we give up, we not only give up on ourselves but also on God. When you face difficulties, understand that God has allowed it to come into your life for a purpose. Discover God’s purpose.

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various [c]trials,3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces [d]endurance. 4 And let [e]endurance have its perfect [f]result, so that you may be [g]perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

God’s Discipline Shows His Love An Our Sonship

The Love of God in Our Discipline

The Lord disciplines the ones He loves. We must have faith in the love of God.

Hebrews: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Proves God’s Love

Faith’s logic is simple: “We are God’s children. God loves His children and is bound by His own nature and His own covenant to do them only good. Therefore, whatever we receive from God’s hand, including discipline, is from God’s love.” More than any earthly father, the heavenly Father wants his children to be righteous, mature, obedient, competent, responsible, capable, and trusting. We benefit in all these ways, and many more, when we accept His discipline.

When we go through the discipline of the Lord, we are not able to see the end result. God does. We must have faith in God that His discipline is for our good.

When we have to discipline our children it is painful. We know that the punishment will bring pain to the child. No good parent likes to see their child in pain. However; Every good parent knows that the discomfort of the punishment today will be much less than the punishment in the future if they continue to exhibit behavior that warranted the punishment in the first place. We discipline them because because we love them and don’t want them to have more pain later on in life.

We must under stand that God uses discipline in our life the same way. He knows what the future holds and allows discipline in our life to prepare us for the future he has for us. Difficult times prepare us for what God has in store for us. He suffers and understands our pain when we go through difficulties. But more importantly He knows the future and what is required for us to be prepared for our future. We must have faith in the love of God.

We are proven to be His children by His discipline

He scourges every son He receives.

Hebrews: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Proves Our Sonship

We also know from our discipline that we are His children, because He scourges every son whom He receives. An undisciplined child is an unloved child and a miserable child. God’s love will not allow Him not to discipline us, and His punishment is another of the many proofs of His love and of our sonship.

Scourging is a form of flogging. It is intended to cause one to remember their disobedience and not repeat it.

Hebrews: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Proves Our Sonship

When our disobedience is great or our apathy is great, His punishment will be great.

God only disciplines those that are His. The sad thing is those that don’t belong to Him, He doesn’t discipline, He judges!

We have all had others children that we have seen misbehaving. Perhaps we have said to ourselves, “if that was my child I would...” or “If that child could spend a week with me I would straighten him up.” You can’t because it is not your child. You don’t have the love or best interest in the child’s life like the parent does. God always has the best interest of his children in mind.

Hebrews: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Proves Our Sonship

Jerome said a paradoxical thing that fits the point of this passage of Hebrews. “The greatest anger of all is when God is no longer angry with us.” The supreme affliction is to be unteachable and unreachable by God. When the Lord disciplines us, we should say, “Thank you, Lord. You have just proved again that You love me and that I am Your child.”

Life And Holiness Come From The Discipline Of The Lord

Life

The discipline of the Lord brings life. Consistent rebellion against the discipline of the Lord could cost you your life.

Hebrews: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Life

More than this, however, I believe the teaching here may include the idea that when we are subject to the Father of spirits, we will have a richer, more abundant life. You do not know what victory is until you have fought a battle. You do not know the meaning of freedom until you have been imprisoned. You do not know the joy of relief until you have suffered, or of healing until you have been sick. You do not know what living is all about until you have experienced some problems and hardships.

A life lived in the discipline of the Lord brings great liberation, freedom, and strength. It brings liberation in the sense that the natural consequences of our sin serve as a reminder not to repeat those sins. This is the discipline of the Lord. It gives you freedom in that you can live outside the bondage of sin. The Lord’s discipline reveals sins lack of authority in your life. The Lords discipline reveals His strength to live with joy in difficult circumstances.

Holiness

The Lord’s discipline brings holiness into our lives. God’s greatest desire for us is holiness. It is in holiness that we experience true life. When we live life unencumbered by sin and live a life of holiness, their is true satisfaction in life.

Enduring difficulties whether they be from consequences of sin or just difficult life circumstances that are not a result of sin are opportunities for holiness in our lives. The world is watching how we handle stressful situations. When they see us lean into Christ and what He does in our lives, they will be drawn to Him.