Have you experienced hardship? Have you considered it to be discipline? Do you like to be disciplined? Has discipline done you well in your life? Did your parents discipline you? Have you disciplined your children? Have you thought that God will discipline his children?
We often do not like discipline when it is initially dished out. It does not matter whether we are being disciplined or having to discipline someone else. Yet discipline is necessary for us to grow. We do not typically consider hardship to be discipline, but it can be.
Lest we mistake the meaning, discipline does not mean punishment, although it may include punishment. Discipline is training someone. It may include training for a sporting event. It may include training for a job. God disciplines us for a life spent praising and loving him.
Often, we learn our most important lessons through hardship. It is when we experience difficulties that we learn to adapt or grow. I can remember times of going through training exercises while a Marine and learning that I could go a couple of days without sleep. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t what I wanted to do. But it was training and taught me the discipline to push myself to new limits when it was required.
God may use hardship to teach us, or discipline us, to depend on him. It won’t be easy. It won’t be comfortable. It will stretch us to new limits. It will also force us to depend on him to see us through whatever the situation is. We must remember that God knows what is ahead of us. He knows what we will face later in life. He loves us so much that he prepares us through discipline to be able to withstand what is ahead.
I pray we all know that God will discipline us. I pray we know that God loves us. I pray we see discipline as training and preparing us for something later in life. God loves you. God will discipline you. See discipline as training. See discipline as preparing. Thank God for his discipline.
Hebrews 12:5-7
And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children.
Marty Pressey 