GOD WILL DISCIPLINE A CHRISTIAN

Psalms 30:4,5 Sing to the Lord, you saints of his; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

God will punish or discipline those he loves just as a good father will his children. It would be nice to think that once a person became a Christian we would never sin or do anything wrong again, but that is just not the way things work. We are forgiven and reconciled to God, but in our humanity we are not perfect as God is perfect or without sin as God is without sin. True God sees us as without sin because we have asked Jesus to forgive us, but we are not only weak but still struggle with our humanity and that can lead to many different kinds of sins. Sometimes the sins come unintentionally when we don’t even realize we are doing them. To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is the greatest commandment and consequently not to do this is the greatest sin. Yet, what Christian does this twenty-four hours a day for the rest of their life after becoming a Christian? The answer is of course none of us, even the best of us!

So where does God’s punishment come in and how do we know that it is not from Satan, the powers of darkness, the evil of this world or even freedom of creation? Well, this is where the Holy Spirit come to help us. He will convict us of our sin, and remind us of the great price that Jesus paid for us to be forgiven. God will not beat us or try to destroy our self-worth. He will try to correct us, so that we will love a happier life and one that glorifies Jesus. He corrects us for our good, and we need to recognize it that way and not that he hates us.

Joy will come in the morning so to speak after God’s correction has done it work. God has no intention of kicking us out of heaven, but rather making us more fit for heaven. It is his intention to embrace us and bless us once again. The thing is if he continues to bless us in the midst of our sinfulness we will never repent. Sin is never good for anyone, and certainly not for a Christian. Indeed his anger may come and he will discipline us, but it is but for a moment compared to eternity with him in heaven where there will blessing upon blessings!

Are you undergoing some correction by God? Don’t fight it as Israel did time and again. Yield to it and learn from it. Repent, seek forgiveness and crawl back up into the loving arms of Jesus once again right where you belong.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus and Holy Spirit, thank you for being so patient with us. Thank you for correcting us as much as we may not like it. We know that you love us and we love you. Please help us not to sin, so we do not need correcting. Thank you Lord. We ask this in Jesus’ name.

#DailyDevotionals