Discipline
Endure trials for the sake of
discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a
parent does not discipline? If you do not have that
discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his
children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we
respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father
of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to
them, but he disciplined us for our good, in order that we may share his
holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the
time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have
been trained by it.
God may be using a painful experience
to get our attention. The season of trouble may not be easy, but if we let
ourselves be trained by it, new growth will result as we become more like His
Son.
Affliction for
God’s people
can be the
pruning knife to prepare us
for greater
fruitfulness.