Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”  Hebrews 12:5-6

I have been and continually am guilty of regarding God’s discipline lightly.  Brushing it off; outright ignoring; refusing to come to Him and work on the sin problem; trying to treat the “symptoms” instead of attacking the root of the issue; thinking that His consequences aren't real and that He doesn't really care enough about me to actually cause something devastating to happen to me as a result of my sin.

I was wrong.

As a child of God, sometimes coming to God with our pain can temporarily lead to more pain.  Avoiding Him, however, always, every time, without fail, leads to exponentially more severe consequences and acute pain.  God treats us as His children (Hebrews 12:7).  His discipline is meant to lovingly and gently correct and, eventually, lead us into peace and righteousness; it is meant to mature us into the image of His Son.  If we reject His discipline and choose to see Him as unloving, evil, or arbitrary, then He is forced to use more drastic means to get our attention and to lead us into a right perspective in our hearts towards Him. 

If my own child does something wrong, then comes to me to seek forgiveness and restoration, my response through correction, reteaching, and consequence will be far less severe than if he does something wrong then tries to cover up his actions, all the while having a complacent attitude towards me.  My desire is for him to DESIRE my approval; to want to do the right thing because He knows I love Him and I only set boundaries for him in order to protect him, boundaries that will ultimately lead to his good.  The way He comes to me after he has done something against me has EVERYTHING to do with the amount, type, and severity of correction he receives.  The deeper the issue, the more drastic the consequence needs to be in order to fully uproot the problem and grow good fruit in place of the bad.

One question you must ask yourself is can you sense the discipline of the Lord in your life?  If not, why not?  The Lord disciplines His kids.  You may be undergoing a season of less strenuous discipline than other times of your life, but you should sense it nonetheless.  He is always working on us, we never have a point where we've "arrived."  If you don't feel this inward pull towards Christlikeness, you should ask God why and measure your relationship with Him against His Word.

 “Whoever spares the road hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” Proverbs 13:24

The Lord only disciplines those He loves.  His correction is meant to restore, teach, build up, bring us to a better place.  Whatever is going on in our live is meant to lead us AWAY from eternal destruction, even if it does lead temporarily to more pain.  We are being perfected, refined, and molded into the image of Jesus Christ.  The process is a long and sometimes painful one…we have a long way to go and there is much work to be done!  But God’s glory and our eternal home is at stake.  It is THE adventure of the Christian's life and we have the ultimate tour guide;).  Submitting to his discipline isn't always easy but the alternative is absolutely impossible.