Dear Hope family,

Thought for the Week

God our Father.

Hebrews 12v10 “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.” (NIV)

I can’t imagine that many of us like discipline.

Discipline can take different forms:

Restriction of what is unhealthy. When parenting, discipline could be exercised in the restriction of what a child wants. For example, a parent may tell their child that they cannot have an icecream. Why not? Maybe because they have had enough unhealthy food today. Maybe because it is not a good time. Maybe so the child can learn patience and the practice of deferred gratification. Maybe so the child learns that they cannot have everything they want and resources are limited. Yet, however good the long term reasons for discipline, the child may still express frustration and unhappiness at not getting what they wanted.

Expansion of what is healthy. Discipline can also be positive such as, with children, an encouragement to eat vegetables or to do their homework! Of course the child can see it as negative despite the positive nature of the instruction.

Correction of error. Additionally, discipline could be exercised as a response to a child doing something wrong. Such discipline could be the withdrawal of a privilege, or the implementation of some form of punishment, or the direction into something positive. Either way, good discipline is exercised not so much as a retribution, but as a way to teach and encourage the child to not repeat the error and to choose to do what is right.

So it is with our God. He is our Father. As a father he wants what is best for you. You might disagree with him, but he is your dad. He is shaping you and changing your attitudes to be like those of Christ Jesus. Unfortunately, knocking off the rough edges is painful. And so Hebrews reflects our experience when it says, “No discipline is 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.” (12v11)

Our identity can easily be wrapped up in our own correctness; in that case we will struggle with discipline and correction, but again Hebrews says, “Do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves.” (12v5)  Here is the thing, a mark of our knowledge of God’s love towards us is our capacity to receive his rebuke positively. Over the page in James 1, he goes further, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

As an aside, there is of course a lesson for those of us who develop others through the exercise discipline – discipline is always best when exercised out of love.

But here is the main point: What are you struggling with right now? What is your loving heavenly Father training you in at the present time?

With love and blessing,

Roland