And have you forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons? “My son, do not scorn the Lord’s discipline or give up when he corrects you. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son he accepts. ”Endure your suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you do not experience discipline, something all sons have shared in, then you are illegitimate and are not sons. Besides, we have experienced discipline from our earthly fathers and we respected them; shall we not submit ourselves all the more to the Father of spirits and receive life? For they disciplined us for a little while as seemed good to them, but he does so for our benefit, that we may share his holiness. Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness for those trained by it.
Hebrews 12:5-11
When our God the Father adopted us as His children through our Lord Jesus Christ, we became His children forever. He treats us just the way good parents do, only our Father in Heaven does it much better. Our relationship with Him is not based on our performance. For example, He does not disown us when we fail or when we sin. He is not like a father that gives up on his children when they fail him. He will never leave us nor forsake us no matter what we have done. Our Father in heaven will be with us forever because He loves us, and this is the relationship that we have with Him. The God, who is powerful and created everything that we see, is our Father, who loves us forever. He is not a distant Father who does not care about us. He is always busy working in our lives.
However, when we disobey Him, just like our parents in this world, He disciplines us. The reason He disciplines us is that He loves us and that He wants us to go in the right direction. If our heavenly Father loves us so much, and He sees that we are doing something that will hurt or destroy us later on in life, would He allow us to continue in that direction, or would He intervene and do something to stop us from hurting or destroying ourselves? The reason He disciplines us is that He cares about us. I thank God that I had an earthly father who loved me enough to discipline me when I did wrong things when I was very young. I remember him spanking me with a stick, and it was very painful. I didn't like it at that time, and I thought that my father did not love me. But as I grew up older, I realized that the reason he spanked me every time I did something wrong was to correct and teach me because he loves and cares about me. So be encouraged when our Heavenly Father is disciplining us every time we sin or disobey Him. Let us trust and obey His direction because it is good for us. Let us not rebel against His will.
List down your prayer request to God. Thank God for being our Father.
Prayer:
Father in Heaven, thank you for being my Father. Thank you for disciplining me every time I disobey you. Please help me to trust and obey you. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen
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