Discipline

There is a difference between discipline and punishment. Disciple is a vision for the future that enacts things today. Hebrews 12:5-6 says, “My son do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” We need boundaries and consistently ask God to show us he loves us. Because he so loves us he chooses to wound us. We can never be good enough. We fall short at our very best, but we can approach the throne of grace with confidence because of the cross. A.W.Tozer said this: “God cannot use mightily the man whom he has not wounded deeply." Discipline is shaping and molding, not because you've done something wrong but to keep you from straying. As a child of God, he will not let me stay comfortable for long. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." So is this herniated disc my thorn in my flesh? I have been drawn closer to him by it, so yes I believe that God is using this physical pain to mold me.

Jesus help me boast in this weakness. Let me continually find my strength in you and be shaped by your discipline.