Daily Devotional

February 17th, 2022
by Pastor Kenton Rahn

"And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live? Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:5-11, BSB)

Can you remember a time when you were a child and your parents disciplined you for doing something wrong? For most of us, that would be a long list. My mom was a softie when it came to discipline, but I remember smarting off to her one afternoon, and she dragged me to the bathroom and rubbed a bar of soap on my tongue. That shut my mouth. And you know what? I don’t remember smarting off to her after that. I learned from that experience and grew up a little bit.

Our passage today tells us that God disciplines every single one of his children, but sometimes we can miss the lesson he is trying to teach us. We take his discipline “lightly.” In other words, we ignore it, not realizing God is trying to get our attention. Or perhaps we have the wrong attitude about it. We get angry and pout. We refuse to listen, learn and submit.
So here are a couple important things to remember.

(1) God’s discipline teaches us to respect him. When my mom rubbed soap on my tongue, I learned an important lesson that day. I learned that she’s not a patsy. And neither is God. He sees everything. He knows everything. And we can’t manipulate him, lie to him, deceive him, or escape his grasp. Divine discipline reminds us that we can’t get away with anything, and it teaches us to fear the Lord.

(2) God’s discipline proves his love for us. We may not always associate discipline with love. But I assure you God does. When I was a kid, my dad often disciplined me in anger. But God never flies off the handle and loses his cool. He always disciplines us in love. And his discipline is, in fact, a sign that we are his children. If God didn’t love us, he wouldn’t bother to correct us. He wouldn’t care what happens to us. He wouldn’t even waste his time by paying any attention to us. So discipline is a sign of his love.

(3) God disciplines us for our good. Whenever we experience God’s discipline, it’s helpful to remember that he always has our best in mind. He always has a good purpose. And some of those purposes are stated in this passage: to share in his holiness (v. 10); to produce a harvest of righteousness and peace (v. 11). Why does discipline result in peace? Because it helps us avoid all kinds of mistakes that would wreck our lives.

The next time you experience the Father’s discipline, I hope you will remember these things.

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