October 17, Holy Discipline

Today’s reading: Psalms 81-85

“But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices” - Psalm 81:11-12.

God’s discipline is seldom easy or pleasant, but it is much better than being left alone to suffer the consequences and reap the fruit of your own actions, attitudes, or thinking. When God confronts you with some truth about you and helps you escape that unpleasant reality, it is because He loves you. When He leaves you alone, which may seem preferable, then you are really in trouble, with no one to help or deliver you from yourself. The writer of Hebrews explained,

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! 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 (Hebrews 12:9-10).

Are you being disciplined? Do you secretly wish that God would leave you alone, or that He is being too harsh, maybe even unfair? If so, then reconsider your thinking today and welcome God’s “interference” in your life, seeing it as an act of love and not that of an arbitrary parent.