May 31
“and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son who He receives. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Hebrews 12:5-6,11)
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to experience God’s discipline. I don’t like to feel the pain of His consequences due to my unbelief and disobedience. What bothers me even more is that by now in my life, I would have expected to be done with it by now! I am 55 years old and still feel the pain of God’s scourging as He takes me to the woodshed. But as painful as it is, it is all good, as the scripture says, so that I can share in His holiness. He wants every speck of impurity and evil to be removed from our hearts. He wants us to be pure in all of our thoughts, words, and deeds, replacing anger and lust with true self-sacrificing agape love, replacing greed with contentment, replacing hard feelings and bitterness with compassion, replacing the tendency to react and overreact to the sins of others with grace and patience. The list could go on and on about all the transformations that God wants to accomplish in our hearts.
Perhaps I sin more than the average Christian, and that is why it sometimes seems I am being disciplined more than the average Christian. Perhaps it is because I have asked the Lord to remove every sin from my life, to do whatever it takes to make me pure and pleasing to Him, a vessel worthy of Him. Perhaps it is because I have asked the Lord to bear much fruit through me so that He gets the glory (John 15:8) and I don’t waste my life and stand before Him empty handed, suffering loss (1 Corinthians 3:12-15, 2 Corinthians 5:10).
However it comes about and for whatever reasons, whether we think it is justified or not, discipline is a good thing, and we should give thanks that the Lord doesn’t let us just continue in our sin. But why in the world would we knowingly subject ourselves to His discipline, proceeding in sin knowing that He will discipline us for it? Or how could we ever sin and put Him to the test, hoping that He doesn’t discipline us? What foolish presumption! Yet many of us do just these things.
Happy is the person who does not provoke the Lord to anger or put Him to the test. Happy is the Christian who anticipates the discipline and loss that surely will come if we choose to sin and then refrains from evil. Happy is the person who remembers the pain, the guilt, the shame, the lost opportunity, the distant and strained relationship with the Lord, the material and spiritual losses, the strained relationships with others. Happy is the wise man or woman who “sees the evil and hides himself.” (Proverbs 22:3) Happy is the person who learns lessons from his or her sins, and even better, the sins of others. Happy are the ones who choose righteousness instead of evil, obedience instead of rebellion, holiness instead of popularity, peace instead of pleasure, victory instead of defeat, life instead of death, reward instead of punishment, Christ instead of Satan! Happy are those who remember the consequences of sin before they sin and choose to keep God’s commandments!