Endure Hardship As Discipline

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.  For what son is not disciplined by his father?  If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.  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 our spirits and live!  Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.  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.

– Hebrews 12:7-11

Do you feel like you are being disciplined by God?  It seems like you keep getting all this opposition and persecution on every side and you keep crying out to the Lord for help, but you are not hearing anything from him!  You cry out to God asking him if he even hears you!  Does he see you?!  Can’t he understand what you are going through?!  Can’t he help you?!  Yet one thing I have learned over the years is that the Teacher goes silent whenever there is a test!  Maybe you are being tested by the Lord to see how you are going to react!  Are you going to endure this hardship you are going through as discipline from God or are you going to cower under the pressure and begin griping, complaining, and turning your back on God?!  God understands that you just want to hear him… you keep saying it a million times!  Are you going to continue to press on doing exactly what the Lord has told you to do for him even though you don’t feel him standing near you?  Because he wants to make you a true son and daughter trained up in righteousness so you can stand your ground for him!  Enduring hardship in life as discipline from God is not always easy, sometimes it is GREATLY painful… And the Lord is going to push you to make some real hard decisions in your life for him!  The Lord is going to make you choose between him or whatever else it is in your life…  Initially, it might be an easy task to lay down things that don’t really mean a lot to you, but over time the Lord is going to make you decide between him and things that Really matter to you – and that is Extremely hard!  Yet through the hardship and all the things you feel you have lost for choosing Jesus (Yeshua), you will see that you made the BEST decision of your life for following Jesus (Yeshua) and letting go of those things, because he IS your life!  Even our earthly fathers disciplined us and we respect them for it, so how much more should we respect our Lord and Savior for disciplining us and leading us into a deeper walk with him so we can live?!  We must understand that when God disciplines us, it is always for our good!  He desires for us to share in His holiness, so shouldn’t that be something we desire?!  In order to be true children of God, you will be disciplined by God your Heavenly Father!  Even though this hardship feels painful now, just know that as you are trained by God’s discipline, you will reap a harvest of righteousness and peace… And that is truly a Wonderful thing!