God Disciplines Those He Loves

 

More and more, we’re witnessing Christians align themselves with systems of the world. They are adopting worldly philosophies and new age principles; and they are attempting to comingle these with the teachings of Jesus Christ. None of us have a soapbox to stand on. God allows us the intelligence to formulate opinions and the free will to exercise actions independent of His Will and Word, and this demonstrates the richness of His grace. But make no mistake, God is holy, and we must be too if our goal is to be a part of His Kingdom. He is very patient with us and allows us time to become fully persuaded in our faith in Him. He waits as we slowly open our eyes and finally realize that God’s way is forever and always the right way. It’s the only way to live in His peace and abundance.

Mistakes are a very costly business, and all of them are caused by either ignoring what God says or not involving Him in certain aspects of our lives. Mistakes cause us to lose stamina and momentum on the Christian journey. As children of God’s light, we must be about the business of minimizing as many mistakes in life that we possibly can, and this can only be done by walking in God’s love through the example of Jesus Christ.

We often box ourselves in by thinking and behaving a certain way. No one wants to be told that their thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors are causing them to go in the opposite direction of God’s love. But the truth is that no one really has to tell us when we have allowed an error to fester. The results of that error will speak louder than any human’s voice can.

Submit your heart to God
The wisdom of God tells us in Proverbs 4:23-27(NLT), “23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. 24 Avoid all perverse talk; stay away from corrupt speech. 25 Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. 26 Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. 27 Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.” The heart is a part of the soul, and God created the soul to be in submission to the spirit of humans. He created the spirit of humans to be in total submission and subjection to His Holy Spirit. Therefore, to guard the heart is to submit it to God. It is to watch that our hearts are only tuned in to what HE says. And it is to make sure that we don’t allow dark thoughts and feelings to influence the soul.

When we don’t watch over our hearts, life becomes increasingly complicated and out of control. Circumstances cause it to become a tangled mess, and we feel as though the situations of life exceed our ability to handle them. People can become so emotionally and mentally overwhelmed that the pain becomes too great, and they feel their only alternative is to check-out or take themselves out of life. Many people lose their minds because they simply cannot take it anymore. This is not God’s desire for anyone, and through Jesus Christ, He offers us a way out.

The Word of God is our strong anchor; a stronger anchor does not exist. Any goodness we hope to achieve in life hinges on the degree to which we believe and live the Word of God. He tells us in Ephesians 4:23 to make our minds new according to the standard of His Word. When our minds or our thought-life is saturated with our own opinions and assumptions about how things ought to go, and we begin to act on those opinions and assumptions, the outcome is less than satisfactory and can be deadly. We’re on a path where our needs cannot be met because our unbelief is clogging up the pipeline of faith.

Unbelief is wrong believing
Unbelief is thoughts, behaviors, and actions that are motivated by a disregard for God’s truth. Unbelief is wrong believing, and the reason why it is dangerous is because it will produce outcomes in our lives that hurt us. Jesus Christ stated the Law of Giving Equals Receiving, or as some call it, the Law of Cause and Effect, in Luke 6:38(NLT). He said, “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” This is God’s law and it will never change, for it governs the way that He designed the universe to operate.

God’s flow of blessings requires our investment of faith. When our investment is unbelief, the opposite of blessings will return to us. And when it returns, trouble will be pressed down, shaken together to make room for more trouble, it will be running over and poured over the things we value. By this we know that unbelief belongs to satan and gives him access to our lives. We need to nip this in the bud.

God said in Hosea 4:6(NKJV), “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” The access to God’s Word is too plenteous for believers today, so there is no excuse for them not to know it. The only reason that we will not read and study it is because we have chosen not to. This cannot be rewarded. We are obligated in Christ to know the truth and to be able to explain it to others plainly.

He tells us in Revelation 3:19(NLT), “I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.” Recognize when you are being disciplined for unbelief, because it will surely show up in your circumstances. Don’t turn a blind eye to your indifference to God’s truth. Instead, with humility, ask Him to reveal your errors.

Your way is not always the right way. Proverbs 12:1(NLT) says, “To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction.” We must always demonstrate our courage and willingness to be corrected by God. Learning the spiritual lessons of Jesus Christ is a life-long occupation, this we must accept. Too many believers have allowed the world’s influence to run amuck in their lives, and this has caused us to veer off the path of God’s blessings. To abandon the wrong way of believing and put on more of Christ, our humility is required, and rest assured that our attentiveness to correction will be rewarded.■

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“God Disciplines Those He Loves”, written for Christian Encouragement and Inspiration© 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.