Revelation 3:14-22 – “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. 21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.” Every parent disciplines their child. It is not a matter of if they discipline their child, it is only a matter of application and degree. They are some things that even those who discipline their children the least expect a child to learn and obey. Things such as potty-training, hygiene, communicating, eating habits, etc. Take potty-training, some may say that a child should be potty-trained before two years of age, some may before three, or five years. It is not a matter of if the child should be trained, but rather, when and how. It is unimaginable that a parent would allow a child to wear no clothes and use the floors, furniture and beds as a place to urinate or defecate. These examples are extreme, but show that every parent disciplines their child in some way. The parent, according to their beliefs, and other factors such as love for the child versus love for themselves, decides where, when and how to apply discipline. Sometimes a child is disciplined not out of love for the child, but out of the parents own love for themselves. All parents discipline their children. Family, I don’t have time to speak of abuse, we are talking about genuine discipline.
God disciplines His children and He is perfect in how He disciplines. God disciplines out of love. The child of God need not always understand the method of discipline. What the child of God must know, must be completely convinced of, is the innate goodness of God, and His absolute, complete and eternal love for each of His children. Knowing that God knows everything, that would mean that He knows when His child needs correction and what is the perfect correction that should be applied for that individual child. The ease of accepting correction from God comes from the depth and conviction of the knowledge of God. To know God, really know Him as Truth beyond everything else, one must grasp who He is. Yes, that He is, but importantly who He is. That understanding brings acceptance, confidence, and even security that one’s life is being guarded and loved. The discipline of our perfect God is perfect. Do we know, and, truly believe in, who God is? Do we believe that He knows, in every circumstance, more that we do? Do we really? If so, then we will not only accept His discipline, but desire it. This is absolutely true. If we believe that God is greater than we are, that He knows more than we do, is innately, purely and absolutely good, and that He loves us with an undefiled purity that is ever present and eternal, than we want His discipline. Whether His discipline is a gentle holding of the hand and leading, or something much stronger, the discipline of God should not be understood as something we endure, but something we embrace. Though discipline can be difficult, we should desire it because He knows best and that if He is disciplining us, He is loving us. Family, discipline from God is love from God! Absolutely! Praise God!
From a very young age I heard from my Dad what most of us have heard, “I discipline you because I love you.” I believed Him, truly I did. I clearly remember a time when I had again done something worthy of spanking. After spanking me my Dad sat on the bed next to me and cried. I was shocked. My Dad was not a crier. I asked why He was crying and He told me that He hates to spank me. He wished He never had to, but He must because He loved me and wanted the best for me. I was deeply impressed. From then on I knew, I was certain, that He disciplined me not because he wanted to, but because he loved me, and his love for me demands that discipline me. And, here is the thing. I benefited from His discipline. He used discipline to teach me life lessons that remain to this day. The discipline he gave me, with the knowledge that His discipline came from His love, in fact was evidence of it, helped me to understand the discipline that comes from God. In fact, though sometimes very difficult, I can praise God through the discipline because I know that His discipline is not from an anger toward me, but from His absolute love for me.
Family, to accept God’s discipline, and to even desire it, we must, must, must, know God personally and deeply. We must know God, not only that He exists, but who He is. If we know who He is we know that He is good and that He loves us. We accepted discipline from our earthly fathers, and know that sometimes they got it wrong. Still we know that they disciplined us as loving fathers. Since we know that God knows everything we think, say and do, and since we know that God is perfectly good and loves perfectly, we can have confidence in His discipline. In fact, we can desire His discipline, because we absolutely know it is for our benefit. Amen! I believe! Lord God, have Your way with us. Have Your way with me! Thank You for Your love and care of me. I know that because of who I am, I require discipline. Lord God, thank You for Your disciplining of me and may it never stop. Mold me and make me as is best. Thank you for loving me. I absolutely trust you! Glory and praise to you! Glory, praise and honor to our perfect, good, and loving God! Praise God!
Psalm 139:23-24 – Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.