I’m not sure whether you’ll like this one, but we must learn to love it because it does great things in our lives. It’s one of the greatest ways to growth and maturity.
Psalm 94: 12 says: “Blessed (happy happy) is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law.”
Job 5;17 says: “Behold, happy (happy happy) is the man whom God correcteth: therefore, despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.” The NLT says: “Consider the joy of those corrected by God!”
Do you mean to say we are to be happy when God corrects and chastens us? I think the happiness is not while we are being corrected, but what happens to us through the correction.
We need to be reminded of God’s words to us in Hebrews 12:11 (NLT): “No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.”
Let’s read the TPT translation: ‘Now all discipline seems to be more pain than pleasure at the time, yet later it will produce a TRANSFORMATION OF CHARACTER, bringing a harvest of righteousness and peace TO THOSE WHO YIELD TO IT.”
Why can we be happy when we are corrected? Because as we YIELD to the correction, we grow and mature and our character is transformed. But do you notice the secret? We must yield to the correction. Get out of the habit of resisting and into the habit of yielding.
God doesn’t want us to stay the same. His purposes us to be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). He wants to change us into the image of Jesus “from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
One of the most important things in our lives is to cultivate a soft heart, a heart that is open to receive correction. The hardest part is that God usually uses people to correct us. We’d feel good if it was God doing it. But He uses His agents. Yes, He does it, but through people. He uses our husband, family members, or other people in our lives.
It doesn’t matter how old we are. There’s still more correction to come because God does not want to stop taking us from one glory to another.
Do you want to stay in the same place you are now? I hope not. I certainly don’t. I know God has so much more to do in me. But the way it happens is through correction. Through exposing the things in our lives that displease the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
And here’s a good point to remember. As we keep soft hearts toward God and His correction in our lives, it is an example to our children. How can we expect them to receive our discipline when we reject discipline in our own lives?
What joy when each family understands this basic truth. When husband and wife and children are all open to the correction of the Lord! This is a growing and maturing family.
Love from Nancy Campbell
Painting: Ain Vares Art