SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 07-07-03
My
Worship Time Focus: Earthly
discipline & heavenly discipline
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Hebrews 12:9-11
1. Message of the verse: “9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to
discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to
the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For
they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines
us for our good, that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to
be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards
it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
(NAS) “Since we respect our earthly
fathers who disciplined us, should we not all the more cheerfully submit to the
discipline of our heavenly Father and live forever? For our earthly fathered disciplined us for a
few years, doing the best they knew how.
But God’s discipline is always right and good for us because it means we
will share in his holiness. No discipline
is enjoyable while it is happening—it is painful! But afterward there will be a quiet harvest
of right living for those who trained in this way.” (NLT)
There are a number of
points that I would like to make about this passage. God disciplines in perfection in order that
His children might reverence Him and to obey His will. This is supposed to be the reason that our
earthly fathers discipline us.
If we respond
correctly to our Heavenly Father’s discipline we will live as verse nine
says. We must then take this that if we
do not except the discipline in the way that God would want us to we could die
as other Scriptures teach us. 1John 5:16
speaks of this, “ If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to
death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not
leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should
make request for this.” This also
happened in the OT on different occasions. (See 1Cor. 10:1-12 for evidence of
this). I must say that this is not the
usual way that God deals with people, but He does do this on certain occasions
as seen in Acts 5.
These writings in
chapter 12 relate with the five exhortations in Hebrews. If believers do not heed those exhortations
then the Lord make choose to take their life in order not to graciously stop
them from sinning more. God makes no
mistakes, even though it is not pleasant to go through His discipline, for He
does it for our own good.
The word in verse 11
which is translated as trained is the same word translated exercise in 5:14, so
we are exercised by God’s discipline, and if we willingly submit to it then
there will be a quiet harvest of right living.
2. Spiritual meaning for my life today: I believe that God’s Word teaches that as a
believer that I am to first of all bring honor and glory to Him, and there are
far too many times when I do not willingly do this, for I do things that make
me happy, not considering what they do to my heavenly Father. The flesh is, or old nature, only wants to do
what is contrary to the Word and will of God, so I must continually battle it
by the power of God’s Spirit and His Word so that whatever I do may be done to
the honor and glory of God, my Father.
As I am going through
this time of discipline from the Lord it is necessary for me to truly find out
what He wants me to learn so that by His grace I will not have to take a repeat
course on this subject, and most of all so that I will have greater reverence
for the Lord and a deeper desire to do His will regardless of my circumstance
or consequences to me.
The Word of God was very convicting to my heart as I read
it this morning.
My
Steps of Faith Today: To
continue to seek from God exactly what he wants me to learn from the situation
that I am in right now, and to believe that God will work out, even these
things, for my good and for His glory.
Memory verses for the week:
Psalm 121:1-3
1.
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From whence shall
my help come from?
2.
My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
3.
He will not allow my foot to slip; He who keeps you will
not slumber.
No comments:
Post a Comment