Hosanna Restoration Church

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy talking about walking by faith and keeping my eyes on Jesus a lot more that I like the thought of being disciplined. That is mostly because the first idea that comes to our minds when we hear the word involves some sort of punishment. Actually there are many definitions of discipline that come before punishment in the dictionary.

The first involves training or being trained. Most certainly God trains us and expects us to be disciplined in our walk with Him. It takes discipline on our part to get ourselves in the habit of Bible reading and praying. It takes discipline for us to love the way that Jesus calls upon us to love or to forgive the way that he expects us to forgive.

When we read the word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our hearts, there is certainly some feeling of being punished as we realize how far we are from the mark. When I am mad and God says don’t be mad, I know I have been scolded. No one likes to be scolded. But God loves me and because he does, He has to correct me. He tells me to train up my children in the way they should go. It only stands to reason that He is going to train me and at the same time help me to see how to best train my children. This will then help in training up other children of God as we minister to the world.

I certainly do not see God as a father who is waiting to drop a rock on me. At the same time, I realize that if I stand around where I should not be and rocks are falling, I cannot expect Him to keep them from hitting me. On the other hand, if I am doing His will and people are throwing rocks at me, I know I can count on Him to take care of me.

It takes discipline to know what God wants. It takes discipline to act when He says act and to wait until he says go. Have you ever felt like you have been scolded as you read the word, or heard it preached? Have you gone to pray and felt ashamed. This is all discipline. Hey the best thing we can do is repent and get over it. God does not hold grudges, He holds classes and teaches us the right way to go.

I think that often times we have the feeling that God should punish us when He just wants to teach us discipline. I also think that many times Christians get to feeling sorry for themselves because they feel like God must be punishing them for something when in fact He is encouraging them to be disciplined in their faith and learn something.

God loves us. He is not out to stunt our growth or to discourage us. Those are tactics of the devil. So let’s determine to be disciplined in whatever definition of the word that the Lord feels is best. It is so nice to be loved.