When storms in life come do you panic? Do you blame God for the sufferings you have had to endure? I think it is time we challenge that outlook. We were created as children of the most high God. He is our Heavenly Father. Think of how the duties of an earthly father reflects on our Heavenly Father. A father is supposed to love his children, provide for them, protect them, discipline them, and teach them how to live fruitfully.
Our Heavenly Father provides those same things for us-- including discipline. That may sound harsh, but discipline is meant for our good. I'm sure we have all known someone with undisciplined kids. Most of the time they are destructive and extreme in their actions. They don't listen to reason and they manipulate people (mainly their parents) to get what they want. Doesn't watching that sicken you? I always think about the future of the child in the "real" world because the world won't put up with an ungrateful and manipulative friend/employee/spouse. Wouldn't a parent want to prepare their child to go into that world and be successful and fulfilled? How big of a role does discipline have in that goal?
When a child is acting out destructively in the natural, it is often for attention. The child longs to be corrected! I may not yet have children myself, but when watching them I have seen this pattern. I have even heard comments like, "Aren't you going to say something about me doing ___?" And when I have corrected the behavior, the child is more at ease. I think we are the same way with our Heavenly Father. When we get into self-destructive behaviors it is a cry for help and attention that we may not even realize we are asking for.
All of this to say that our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He does indeed discipline us. Sometimes storms come and He lets us go through the trials. Not to hurt us, but to strengthen us for what He has in store for us so that we will not be hurt much worse in the future. And when trouble comes, it reveals our true heart, and it isn't always focused on Him. When storms blow in life, if the foundation of our hearts is not firm in Christ, they will destroy the walls we've built. Our Heavenly Father allows this to happen so that we can choose to rebuild with His foundations. He reveals the problem and we can either deal with the pain and realign with His foundation, or ignore it and continue down the same path. We find that when we handle it that way and live with unaddressed pain, the storms get harder and the pain gets deeper and the consequences become more serious.
I strongly encourage you to change your thoughts on the storms of life. Stop and ask your Father what He is trying to teach you. What is He addressing in your heart? How is He trying to strengthen you? When you invite Him in and address those things you will find a renewed strength in your soul.
Hebrews 12:3-13
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you won’t grow weary and lose heart. In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:
My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly
or faint when you are reproved by Him,
for the Lord disciplines the one He loves
and punishes every son He receives.
Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had natural fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead. (HCSB)
Hebrews 12:3-13
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you won’t grow weary and lose heart. In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:
My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly
or faint when you are reproved by Him,
for the Lord disciplines the one He loves
and punishes every son He receives.
Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had natural fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead. (HCSB)
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