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? Hebrews 12:7
When I was in elementary school, my best friend and I disobeyed her mom and played on the computer even though she told us not to on that day. My friend was grounded from the computer for a week as a punishment. My friend's mom, however, did not punish me from playing the computer. Instead of disciplining me, she told my mom what we had done, and my mom determined my punishment: writing "I will respect authority" one hundred times. Why didn't my friend's mom discipline me? It's simple: she was not my mom! Instead, she left the disciplining to my mom. She was concerned about her daughter, not me. It's a parent's responsibility to discipline their child, not someone else's. Good parents discipline their children because they want what is best for them.
We find in Scripture that God relates to His followers as their perfect and loving Heavenly Father. As our Father, He disciplines us when we are living disobediently or unfaithfully to Him. According to Hebrews 12, God disciplines because that is what a good, loving parent does. God's discipline, the writer of Hebrews teaches, "is always good for us" because it leads to holiness and to become more like Him (vs. 10).
Discipline is never fun for the one being disciplined or the one doing the disciplining, but it is necessary. When God disciplines, He is working in our lives to make us more like Him. He is doing it out of love because any good parent knows the importance of discipline. It is easier not to discipline, but to not discipline a child is lazy and unloving. Are you living in a way that is disobedient or unfaithful to God? Turn to Him. His discipline is for your good: to make you more like Him. Rest assured that He disciplines you because He loves you.
Are you disobeying the Lord or living in a way that dishonors Him? Are you undergoing the Lord's discipline right now? Your call today is to confess your sin. In prayer, confess your sin to the Lord. Repent and commit to following Him obediently. Tell someone today that you are turning away from your disobedience and ask them to hold you accountable.
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.
For the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
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? 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. 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?
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. 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.
