“Because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” – Proverbs 3:12
Most of the time we hate our parents for disciplining us. There are really parents who will lay a hand to their children for the children to learn from it. We can even hear them say that it hurts them more than it hurts us. It is because no parent would want to see their children suffer and get hurt. However, it is necessary for them to discipline us so that when we grow old, we will not grow undisciplined and without manners.
It is just like our God. More than our earthly fathers, God the Father disciplines us also. He doesn’t want us to continue to dwell in darkness and to continue to keep sinning especially after His Son died for us. Since Jesus Christ died for us, we are now welcomed into the holy family of God in which we are now legitimate children of God through Christ. A father only disciplines his children, so if God disciplines us, it means that we are His children.
We should be able to understand that the rod that God uses to discipline us will surely hurt and even cause us shame but we have to understand that it is for our betterment, not for God’s advantage. Everything God did was for our advantage. It is for us to learn what we need to learn and to abandon what harms us. Indeed that God disciplines those He loves and if we are disciplined by God, just know that He loves us.
Correction, discipline and training should be embraced. We have to learn to accept correction from God and not see God as our enemy. Most of the time we see people who correct us as enemies. We should stop that mindset and see those people God used to correct us as a blessing because God is correcting us, which means that He loves us and that He cares for us.
Therefore, we should always remember to not despise the correction from God but instead open our minds and hearts to accept it. We should always put in our minds that God only corrects those He loves and if we are disciplined by Him, then He really loves us. Always remember that a father will only discipline his legitimate children, so if God disciplines us, it means that we are legitimate and that He sees us as His children in Christ Jesus our Lord.
