ICS Daily Devotions
Godly Discipline
Heb 12:8-10 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
There is a big difference between the discipline of our earthly father and the heavenly Father, because one is the father of our flesh and the other of our spirit. Nonetheless, as parents, we need to be able to discipline our children, but at the same time accept the chastening of the heavenly Father for we are His legitimate children.
God’s love and acceptance for us is based on His unconditional love. It is a foundation that never changes even if He needs to discipline us through rebuking, correcting and training us in righteousness. Similarly, when we discipline our children, they need to know that the very foundation is love even though the experience may be unpleasant to them. Children will not rebel if the foundation has been built correctly on love, but if it is all law and no love, it will cause rebellion.
There are consequences that we need to face in life for the wrong decisions we make or sowing in the flesh that reaps corruption. It is better to be disciplined by our earthly father and corrected by our heavenly Father rather than open the door to the devil, even though both types of discipline are unpleasant for the moment.
As earthly parents, we need to teach our children that there will be corresponding consequences for every choice that they make, which is either good or bad. The same goes with us when God deals with us after we make a wrong choice. Nevertheless, we should take heart, for the chastening of the heavenly Father is always for our good, so that we may partake in His holiness, and it promises to yield the fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Heb 12:11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Sermon Series: Father’s Day 2019
