My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor detest His correction;
For whom the Lord loves He corrects,
Just as a father the son in whom he delights.
This portion of Proverbs is some serious comfort food for the children of God! Do not despise the chastening of God – because you know what it means? It means that God delights in you. God chastens those He loves.
Have you been corrected by God? Have you been convicted? Has your heart been heavy over some petty sin you have fallen into? Has God pressed on your heart the weight of your own sin? Well, isn’t that Good news? If God didn’t love you, you wouldn’t have that weight. Because He loves you he is giving you this opportunity to walk away from it.
The other day we had stopped at a small restaurant with our kids. We were all seated in the back corner right by the bathroom, and there was a family with a young son beside us. The son began throwing a monster tantrum and after some time of the mother being angry at him, she hauled him off to the bathroom. He proceeded to continue on with an epic festival of indulgence in the bathroom. Shrieking and screeching and yelling I hate you’s and much more. The father just sat beside us and looked straight ahead, completely ignoring it. It is safe to say that the minds of my children were blown.
This is the good news. When you throw a spiritual fit, your Father does not ignore you. When you have a spiritual meltdown, your Father is not silent. Whe you are screaming in the bathroom of your soul – your Heavenly Father is not leaving you to it. Rejoice in that. When God chastens you, you know He loves you. When you feel guilty over the snippy thing that you said to one of your kids, you can take comfort in the fact that your Heavenly Father is not interested in leaving you to yourself. He loves you. His discipline of you is a manifestation of that love.
So take this kind of correction as evidence that God loves you. And respond to that love with repentance. Respond to that love by running to Him. It does not honor God to dwell on our sin, and in our sin. It honors Him to flee from it into His arms. You are loved children. Rejoice.
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Thank you so much for writing these daily posts. Praise God that we can have a clean slate in repentance at any time… Right now! Not even waiting for a new day. What an awesome God.
Recently I have been nearly inundated with rhetoric about how a Papa- God would never orchestrate this or that difficulty in the lives of His children. Every sickness and adverse circumstance is from the Devil. If you are dealing with negative stuff, you havent claimed the power of Christ. And yet, there is Job. I have often thought of these verses, as well. Thanks for the encouragement to flee to God in the middle of the chastening.
Oh good cOmpairison! Hadn’t thought of It like that before.