God Disciplines You

Deuteronomy 8:4-5 – Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

Nehemiah 9:21 – For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.

2 Samuel 7:14 – I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands.

Hebrews 12:5-7,11 – 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, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?... 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.

Application:

• ·         “Clothes did not wear out” was evidence of the special providence of God.
• ·         God promised to maintain a special relationship with the descendant(s) of David whom He will establish on David’s throne.
• ·         Suffering and persecution should be seen as corrective and instructive training for our spiritual development as God’s children.
• ·         God chastens us in order to correct our faults.
• ·         God’s discipline is evidence that we are His children. Far from being a reason for despair, discipline is a basis for encouragement and perseverance.
• ·         When received submissively, discipline is wholesome and beneficial.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV