August 30 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11).

Devotional

There is often a severity in the chastisements of our covenant God. It is important to the end for which they were sent not to overlook this grievousness. He who sent the chastisement appointed its character. He intended that it should be felt.

There is much danger in underrating the chastisements of God. It is not uncommon to hear some of God's saints remark, in the very midst of his dealings with them, "I feel it to be no cross at all. I do not feel it an affliction. I am not conscious of any peculiar burden." Is it not painful to hear such expressions from the lips of a dear child of God? It betrays a lack of spiritual sensitivity. It reveals a deficiency of that keen, tender feeling which ever ought to belong to those who profess to rest on Jesus.

Now we solemnly believe that it is the Lord's holy will that his redeemed child should feel the chastisement to be grievous. You should feel the smartings of the rod! Moses, Jacob, Job, David, Paul—each were made to exclaim, "The LORD has chastened me severely" (Ps. 118:18).

When you remember that your chastisements often grow out of your sin—that God sends the rod to subdue some strong indwelling corruption, or to correct for some outward departure—this should ever humble your soul. This should ever cause you rightly to view the rebuke. If it were not for some strong indwelling corruption, or some step taken in departure from God, then God would have withheld this affliction. Oh, how every stroke of the rod should lay your soul in the dust before God! "If God had not seen sin in my heart and in my conduct, then he would not have dealt so heavily with me in this way." And if you do not feel the grievousness of the chastisement, then should that not make you suspect that you have not discovered and mourned over the cause of the chastisement?

Consider as well that the stroke comes from the Father who loves you. He loves you so much that he gave his only begotten Son for you. You are dear to him as the apple of his eye. Would he inflict those strokes, if there were not an absolute necessity for them? "What? Is it the Father who loves me that now afflicts me? Does this stroke come from his heart? What? Does my Father see the need for this grievous chastening? Does he discover in me so much evil, so much perverseness, so much that he hates and that grieves him, that he sends this severe discipline?" Oh how this thought—that the chastisement proceeds from your Father who loves you—imparts a keenness to the stroke!

Moreover, there is often something in the very nature of the chastisement itself that causes its grievousness to be felt. The wound may be in the tenderest part. The rebuke may come through some idol of the heart. God may convert some of your choicest blessings into sources of the keenest sorrow. How often he, in the wisdom and sovereignty of his dealings, adopts this method! Abraham's most valued blessing became the cause of his acutest sorrow. The chastisement may come through the beloved Isaac. The very mercy you clasp so fondly to your warm heart may be God's voice to you, speaking in the tone of severe yet tender rebuke. Samuel, dear to the heart of Eli, was God's solemn voice to his erring yet beloved servant.

Let no afflicted believer, then, think lightly of his chastisements. It is the Lord's will that you should feel them. He sent them for this purpose. If you did not feel the cross, if you were not conscious of the burden, if the wound were not painful, then you would never take it to the mercy-seat, there to seek all needed grace, support, and strength. You must first feel the burden before you cast it upon the Lord. You must feel the chastisement to be grievous before you will seek the tenderness and sympathy of Jesus.

At the same time, remember that there is equal danger of overrating your afflictions. If you allow them too deeply to absorb you in grief, if they render you unfit for duty, if they keep you from walking in the path God has marked out for you, if they hold you back from prayer and from the means of grace, if they lead you to think harshly and speak severely of God, then you overrate God's chastisements, and so prevent the good he so kindly sent them to convey.

In the hour of trial, Jesus, plead for me;
lest by base denial I depart from thee;
when thou seest me waver, with a look recall,
nor for fear or favor suffer me to fall.

(Jas. Montgomery, 1834 [st. 1, line 2, alt.])

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.