Day 3

God disciplines us not necessarily to correct us, but to make us better.

‘Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?’ (Hebrews 12:7)

Discipline is never a popular theme. Scripture has a lot to say about the discipline of God in our lives. The Bible makes it very clear that God disciplines us. Deuteronomy 8:5 says, ‘Know then in your heartthat as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.’

Discipline is more than correction. Discipline is a means for God to mould us into who He wants us to be. The Oxford English dictionary tells us the word discipline comes from the word ‘disciple.’ All truedisciples subject themselves to discipline, which may come as a word of rebuke or challenge, or by hard circumstances or unexpected twists and turns in the road that shake our securities. Discipline is notsimply correcting a wrong; it is making something better. Jesus himself experienced the discipline of His Father when, ‘Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once madeperfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him’ (Hebrews 5:8-9).

You may be facing challenges of many kinds or situations that test your faith, but always behind the discipline of God is His love for ‘the Lord disciplines the one he loves’ (Hebrews 12:6). This is an expression of the love that will not abandon us.

Thank God that the discipline you face in life is because you are loved.