Date: February 4, 2020 at 2:18 AM
Topic: +DEV+ A Father Who Cares

A Father Who Cares

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Hebrews 12:5-6

Scripture Focus: Hebrews 12

Joe was in a bad motorcycle accident and lost his leg. He lay in his hospital bed asking God, “Why?” Tragedies are hard to understand. Was it simply a consequence of living in a fallen world? Did one tragedy actually save him from a worse one? Theologian D.A. Carson reminds us that our finite brains cannot understand how God can do “thousands of things, even millions of things” through one event.

In any of these painful situations, it is not wrong to ask if God is disciplining us. Might He be disciplining us like a father correcting his child? Perhaps Joe needed to admit he drove recklessly and without concern for others. In Joe’s running from the Lord, this life-changing event could cause him to return. We don’t know the circumstances behind every heartbreak, but we need to realize that God sometimes works in these ways.

Godly discipline whose aim is to restore may be foreign to you. But friends, rejoice in it. God disciplines those He loves, never in a fit of anger, but always as an expression of love.

Insight: As a blacksmith forms the hot metal with a hammer, so God the Father uses discipline to form us to be more like His Son.

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Michael D. Inman