The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Proverbs 3:11-12,
"My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in."
Here is a passage that tells us something about our relationship with God that is echoed elsewhere in Scripture, such as 1 Corinthians 11:27-32, Hebrews 12:4-13 and Revelation 3:19.
While we all may have differing ideas on what God is like and what it is we should be experiencing in a relationship with him, he tells us something we all need to be expecting. As a loving parent does, God will bring discipline into our lives. He does so because we need it and he does so because he loves us, just as a child needs a course direction from his parents.
I'd like to think I have arrived at a point where I no longer need this kind of discipline and it is exactly that kind of perspective that brings God's rebuke, God's discipline. The truth is I'd rather not have to face God's discipline. As the proverb tells us, it is something I may tend to despise or resent. I'm pretty comfortable in my self-absorption and short-comings. That is precisely why I need God's discipline - I need to be stretched to grow and mature and take on the image of Jesus Christ. We are told that God had predestined from the beginning of time that those who would embrace him in faith, he would work in their lives to bring about some spiritual maturity while we are still in this life. "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Romans 8:28-29.
Children who are disciplined for their good by their parents experience a form of love that may be unrecognizable to them at the time. It may even take years to arrive at the enlightened perspective that what was painful then was actually something very productive and profitable for us at the present time - something that became indispensable for our growth and development. It is that very delay in perception, a delay that further demonstrates the need for the discipline, that we are told in Proverbs to not despise or resent what we may not yet understand. As a point of faith, we are told it comes from our Heavenly Father who delights in us, that it is in fact an expression of his love for us.
As Jesus said in his letter to the church in Laodicea, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline." Revelation 3:19. It just may be the thing I find as my greatest struggle or hardship or challenge is God's very best expression of his love for me. To think that the Lord is so intimately involved in our lives, arranging things we encounter and working them for our good is just astounding!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
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