Discipline: The Cost of Being God’s Child
You Must Endure Hardship
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?
How do you see trouble? Do your problems intimidate you? Do they leave you paralyzed in a web of self-sabotage? Or do you search for the good in your bad? The answers to these questions are important. Your perception of trouble determines your response to it.
Today’s scripture tells us to endure our hardship as discipline. That’s quite a mouthful. If you’re like me, discipline isn’t one of your favorite words. As a kid, I always tried to do the right thing just to avoid correction. I still carry some of that with me today. If I’m honest, sometimes I’m only obedient to avoid consequences. But on the flip side of that, now that I have my own children, I understand the need for correction.
Though it isn’t our parents’ job anymore, discipline is still an important part of our lives. God will allow road bumps in our path just to get us back on the right one. Unfortunately, we usually see those bumps as failures or life sentences. However, they are incredible examples of God’s love for us. While I don’t believe God orchestrates our tragedies, I’m certain He allows them. Some hardships are attacks from the devil, but some are a gift. Discipline legitimizes our relationship with God.
If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.
Think about it. Aren’t you more invested in your own children’s upbringing? While God loves everyone, we aren’t all His children. He allows us the freedom to decide whether we want to be His. Everyone in the world faces trouble, but only those who belong to God allow it to bring them closer to Him.
Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.
We have to receive God’s love to fully experience it. And whether or not you like it, discipline is a huge part of that love. In the same way you wouldn’t let your child play in the street, God puts boundaries in place for our protection. Like a kid in timeout, discipline won’t always seem fun. As painful as chastisement can feel, it reaps a glorious reward.
Discipline Is Training
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.
Did you catch it? Discipline is training. If you will endure your hardships, they will prepare you to reap a harvest of righteousness and peace. If you know anything about farming, you know a harvest is not something you lazily wait for. You can’t complain or fantasize your way to reaping a harvest. It takes work. Endurance is not just waiting out your troubles, but waiting the right way. Keeping your eyes on Jesus and staying obedient allows you to reap the harvest that God has intended for you.
Does that mean you’ll be perfect after your spiritual spanking? No. But endurance grows you up spiritually and helps you be more like God.
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.
How do we share in God’s holiness? How do we become more like God? You got it. We have to endure God’s discipline to become more like Him. A good parent chastises their children from their wisdom and experience. The only reason I can tell my children what’s good for them is because I’ve learned it myself. In the same way, God disciplines us from the standpoint of knowing what’s best for us. Only He knows the steps we must take to fulfill our purpose. Only God can tell us when we’re straying from our destined path.
Holiness means set apart. God-fearing Christians don’t presume they’re better than anyone else. But we should be different. How can we be a light to the world if we look and act just like it?
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.
This scripture emphasizes that how we wait out our hardships is the most important part of the journey. We can’t rush time, so in most circumstances, waiting is the only option. But how do you wait? Complaining about your hardship is not enduring it. Being internally frustrated and taking it out on others is not patient endurance.
How do you think God would handle conflict? Regardless of changing situations, God is unchanging. He holds Himself to a standard that doesn’t depend on other people or events. He’s set apart. His holiness lies in His uniqueness, and we should reflect His character. Despite being created in His image, we are also made of flesh. Our sinful lusts fight against our God-given purpose every day. The question is not whether you’ll have trouble, but how you’ll handle it. Have you aligned your standard of living with God’s?
Why Is Holiness Important?
Maybe you don’t see the importance of holiness. After all, you can’t earn salvation. No matter how many good deeds you do or how many church services you attend, you’ll never “deserve” your spot in heaven. So why worry so much about your behavior? Well, I’ll tell you. Without prioritizing holiness (living how God instructs us to live) you can’t be in close relationship with Him. Not because He’ll love you any less, but without that desire to serve God, you can’t create room for Him.
Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
An intimate relationship with God is what allows us to live a holy life. Our desire for that intimacy makes room for the Holy Spirit to lead and strengthen us. Holiness and spiritual maturity essentially boil down to one decision you make. Will you be diligent in following God? When you make a firm decision to follow Him, everything about you changes. Not immediately on the outside, but from the inside out. You can’t change on your own, but you’re required to put in the effort. Holiness doesn’t happen on accident.
You must be intentional in how you live your life. Hardship is what will reveal that intentionality the most. Will you commit to your relationship with God so much that you trust Him even through your rock bottom experiences? Can you “think on good things” (Phillipians 4:8) while you’re experiencing the bad? To understand the deep relevancy of this conversation, let’s look at another scripture.
See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.
You remember Esau. He was the oldest son of Isaac and Rebekah. He might be most well-known for exchanging his birthright for a bowl of stew. His younger brother had something he wanted at the moment. In what seems like a moment of temporary insanity, Esau prioritized a momentary desire over the long-term benefit of his birthright as the first son. It sounds crazy. Christians have judged Esau for years. Who would give up their inheritance for just one lunch? It seems ludicrous as we try to imagine what must’ve been going through his mind. But how can we judge, when many of us still do the same thing every day?
Don’t believe me? Let’s read Hebrews 6:12.
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
Esau was due a natural inheritance because he was the first-born son. God promised you and l a spiritual inheritance as one of His children. Like Esau, we have a choice in pursuing the path to that inheritance. Unfortunately, too many of us choose the wrong path. It may manifest as laziness, a refusal to walk in love, or simply “doing you” instead of doing God’s will. Your stew may be a little different than Esau’s, but the results could prove to be the same. Hebrews 6:12 says that it is through faith and patience that we receive our promised inheritance. Maintaining faith and patience requires you to make a firm decision. God has wonderful promises already set up for you, but He won’t force you to receive them.
It is unholy to be like Esau – to prioritize the temporary needs and wants of the flesh over the everlasting things of God. Your hardships are like a tiny dot on the timeline of your entire natural life, let alone eternity. Would you let your child risk their entire life because they want a ball that landed in the street? No. So don’t let yourself cancel your inheritance for what you can see right now.
Next time you go through something, check yourself before you allow complaints and woes to escape from between your lips. Challenge yourself to “endure your hardships as discipline”. Practice finding God’s love even in your problems. You are called to a great promise – don’t ignore the call.
1 Comment
Does God Love Me?: The Importance of Trusting God’s Enduring Love - Proverbs 31 Exclusive · March 16, 2022 at 1:30 am
[…] You may have lost your job, and while that’s a problem that needs a solution, focus on how God is your Provider. Sickness and disease may afflict one’s body, but a believer will focus on God’s healing power. Life isn’t always good, but God is. He is consistently working things out for our good. That means there will be bad times, feelings, and events that we must endure. However, when we keep our eyes on the prize, we can endure those hardships as God intended us to. […]
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