Can you remember getting into trouble as a child?  My memory isn’t as good as it once was but I got into enough trouble that I can remember the concept pretty well.  The thing is our parents discipline us to help us become better people and to protect us from trouble.  Have you ever thought about God, our Father disciplining us in a similar way?  The author of Hebrews talks about this. Let’s look together at Hebrews 12 today

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

When we walk through hardships it might not be God punishing us but He certainly uses it to strengthen us. Perhaps you are walking through a challenging time right now.  How can God use that situation to make you better or stronger or more dependent upon Him? What new direction or path is He leading you to?  What areas of sin in your life is He helping you to overcome?  I know in my own life that difficult times have always led to God leading me to new areas of growth.  He has brought me to places that I wouldn’t have gone on my own.  I pray that we will all be “disciplined” by God well as we walk through the struggles of life.

In His Grip,

Pastor Dave