December 14 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Hebrews 12:1-13

¹Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
²Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
³For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
⁴Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
⁵And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
⁶For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
⁷If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
⁸But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
⁹Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
¹⁰For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
¹¹Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
¹²Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
¹³And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

Devotional:

We have seen that chastening was a prominent theme in the Old Testament, but neither is it lacking in the New. In fact the author of Hebrews is quoting from Old Testament sources in this very section. God is the same yesterday, today and for ever. He still chastens His children.

Why does God discipline us? 'God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness' (12:10 NIV). We speak of the Bible and prayer and the sacraments as means of grace, and so they are. But when illness and bereavement and financial reverses and disappointment come to us, do we recognize these as means of grace, too? These are instruments of God's discipline by which He teaches our stubborn hearts lessons we should have been able to learn by precept. They are stern but necessary agents in our sanctification.

'This is the will of God, even your sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3). He would have us to be holy, even as He is holy. He tells us this in His Word. He pleads with us. He seeks to stimulate us by His demonstrations of love and faithfulness. But often it is only discipline that will wake us up and drive us to our knees before Him.

So it is we are made to see that His discipline is 'for our good that we may share in his holiness.' So it is that we need to chasten our children for their good and that they with us may share in the holiness of God.