One of the greatest ways that God shows His love for us is when He sends His chastisement to His children when we stray into sin. We read of this loving discipline in (Hebrews 12:4-11):
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
I believe as earthly parents, especially of young children, that one of the greatest ways we can show love to our children is by administering good godly discipline when they are disobedient to our commands. They often will hate us for this, but when they grow up they will realize when this discipline is administered justly and in accordance with God’s wishes, that this proved to be a great long term blessing. I often say that if children are not disciplined and are allowed to do whatever they please, that they will grow up to be adult monsters. Unlike God, who always administers chastisement perfectly, we sadly, sometimes don’t do the best job, even though at the time we think it might be best.
The exciting thing about God’s chastisement is that not only is it for our good but according to (Hebrews 12:10) we read: “…God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.” Not only that but God’s discipline produces, “…a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11). Imagine the end result of God’s chastisement is that we can share in His holiness, reap a harvest of righteousness, and experience great peace!
My friends, God wants to always bless us, but sometimes His chastisement is His necessary tool to accomplish this. God always wants His children to experience the wonderful and abundant blessings He has in store for us. However, when we go astray and sin we often forfeit some of these blessings. Thankfully, when God afflicts us, it is to restore a robust fellowship with Himself that sometimes gets broken when we steer away from obeying His Word and will. In closing, I really like how Andrew Murray talked about the entire chastisement process when he shared: “God has no pleasure in afflicting us, but He will not keep back even the most painful chastisement if He can but thereby guide His beloved child to come home and abide in the beloved Son.”1
1 Andrew Murray – God has no pleasure in afflicting us, but He will…