|
|
Post by Cindy on Feb 28, 2016 7:25:02 GMT -5
The knowledge of Christ revealed most fully at the cross is the thing of first importance. It is no surprise that the knowledge of Christ is central to God’s plan for everything. God has exalted Christ over all things. When we know and honor Jesus, God is pleased to bless us with more: more knowledge, more faith, more love, more hope. We are thus better equipped to fight. Another reason it is so important to know Jesus is that one of the grand purposes of human existence is to look more and more like him. This is God’s plan for us. It is one of the greatest gifts he could give. It is evidence that he has brought us into his family. If Jesus learned obedience through suffering, we will too. A path without hardships should cause us to wonder if we really belong to God.
The challenge for us is to think as God thinks. We once thought that suffering was to be avoided at all costs; now we must understand that the path to becoming more like Jesus goes through hardship, and it is much better than the path of brief and superficial comfort without Jesus. When we understand this grand purpose, we discover that suffering does not oppose love; it is a result of it (Hebrews 12:8). We are under the mistaken impression that divine love cannot coexist with human pain. Such thinking is one of Satan’s most effective strategies. It must be attacked with the gospel of grace.
“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:1–11)
Heart of the matter: Daily reflections for changing hearts and lives.
|
|
|
|
Post by Brother Mark on Mar 8, 2016 11:24:41 GMT -5
Awesome post. I am sitting at the hospital with Shirley. She is just about to go back for surgery. I read this and I can feel the comfort of knowing that everything is going to be OK. Thank you for sharing this.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cindy on Mar 8, 2016 13:26:41 GMT -5
God bless you and Shirley, Mark! I'm glad it was a help to you!
|
|
|
|
Post by Brother Mark on Mar 8, 2016 22:34:08 GMT -5
Thanks Cindy, this did help in many ways. I am reading posts, on the board that I haven't been able to read. So you will see more comments and maybe I will join in some discussions when I am able too. Thank you and God Bless.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cindy on Apr 1, 2016 8:00:09 GMT -5
I really got a lot from this one too! It's a hard but true lesson. Just as we're told that we must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22) I think that those of us that He has allowed to live with daily pain and suffering are in actuality much more blessed then those who are healthy. Through it, He conforms us more quickly to be like Jesus and teaches us more quickly to be humble and to serve others the way He did. I guess I should really say that He gives us the choice of doing this or of turning away from Him and fighting Him all the way. And sadly, that's what some people choose to do. They think He doesn't love them because he won't heal them. (that's part of the damage from the false health,and prosperity gospel). In reality though, He's given us a huge blessing through the pain we have, and it's not one that He gives to everyone. Those of us who accept it, God will lift us up in due time - most likely when we join Him, having been made perfect through our suffering. Just as Peter tells us here: "“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” (1 Peter 5:6) I've been memorizing the following verses to help me with this: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12–14) It's a difficult life while we're here, for sure, and I know that the Lord is aware of that. But I try, like Paul said, to keep my mind on the prize He has for us, so that I can keep going every day with His help. Truly, Mark, you and I, and the others we know that have been given this ministry of pain, have been given a far greater blessing then we probably understand or realize fully now.
|
|
noah
New Member
Posts: 31 
|
Post by noah on Apr 3, 2016 11:17:06 GMT -5
Hi Cindy I really enjoyed this devotional I just read it. One question I have is I read Hebrews 12:8 and it talks about God disciplines us. The question I have is how do we know we are being disciplined?
|
|
|
|
Post by Cindy on Apr 8, 2016 11:53:35 GMT -5
I'm sorry I didn't see this till now Noah. Let me grab my bible and I'll be right back!
|
|
|
|
Post by Cindy on Apr 8, 2016 12:38:06 GMT -5
I wondered the same thing when I first read that. I think everyone does. The Lord tells us in James one way we can know things like this. Let me quote it for you: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” (James 1:2–8) We often take the verses about asking for wisdom out of context, which is why I posted this in full, so you could see that asking for wisdom is about asking God why we're going through trials. We're asking if we being disciplined. (Before I go any further, I know this is going to be a long post, but please take the time to read it. Your question, and the scriptures involved are not easy to explain...)
If we know we have sinned and our life goes on as usual, without anything happening to get our attention, we should worry that we're not saved. If on the other hand, things happen and keep happening (until we repent) then we can know for sure that we're saved and that God has been disciplining us. I often use regular family situations when I'm trying to explain something about how God deals with us, because it fits so perfectly. So if we think about this, the way we would if it was our child that had sinned against us, how would they know they were being disciplined? For one thing, my children wouldn't have to ask me, they'd know without a doubt that if they'd done something wrong, there was going to be a consequence! If they asked me anything, it would more likely be asking what the consequence was going to be, instead of "if there'd be one". The problem is that we've been told so much about God being loving and that He loves us, and we've had the world definition of love pushed at us for so long, that we forget that true love does not allow a person to get away with their sin. True love lets the person know that they've done something wrong and need to repent of it. It never tolerates evil. Then, we also have stuck in our heads that some sins really don't count much, that there are "little sins" and big sins. But to God, sin is sin, it's all the same. It's rebellion against Him and choosing self over Him. The other problem we have is that many of us don't even know what things are sinful. For example many don't realize that we've been commanded (not asked, not suggested) to be in His Word every day, and to not do so is sin. Almost all of us at first when we're saved, assume that sin is breaking one of the commandments and as long as we don't do that, we're ok. Sadly, that's far from the Truth. To help myself recognize my own sins, I made a list of many of them a long time ago. I wrote an article explaining sin and sharing my list here: Sin is more then just the 10 Commandments. God loves us and accepts us as we are when He saves us, but He expects us to grow in our faith and in our relationship with Him.
Please understand though that not all suffering or trials are caused by God's discipline. We can go through many trials and much suffering even when we're living in the midst of God's Will. Jesus told us that we'd have trials in this life and He meant it. Trials can be caused simply because we live in a broken world; or by the sins of others, as well as by our own sins. Being a Christian doesn't get us out of the things that happen to everyone, believer and unbeliever alike. The big difference is that regardless of what causes our trials or suffering, God will use them for our good. Having said that though, I need to issue yet another caution. Working all things toward our good does not necessarily mean that the good will happen or show up in this life. Sometimes it does, but it also often doesn't. God is working for our spiritual good which is far beyond any thing material or physical. He's working to conform us to the image of His Son. Of course we have a choice in that too. We can fight Him and cause the trials to last longer, or we can cooperate with Him, learn the lessons He has for us in the trial, and do our best to bring glory and honor to Him no matter what's happening to us. Thinking of that always reminds me of a favorite quote of mine: "the challenge is to change from living life as a painful test to prove you deserve to be loved, to living it as an unceasing Yes! to the truth of your belovedness."
the bottom line when we're wondering if we're being disciplined, we need to ask the Lord to help us search our hearts to see if we've been sinning against Him, and if we have, we need to confess it and repent of it. God assures us that when we repent He will forgive us our sins. That doesn't mean that we won't have to continue to suffer the consequences of our sin, because we usually do. But if we've repented there won't be additional consequences caused by discipline, for it won't be needed any longer. Again, like when my children did something wrong and I punished them by grounding them to the house or their room... when they repented and were changing how they acted, they still had to finish their "sentence", but I certainly didn't add anymore to it. See what I mean? Let me quote some too from a commentary about this for you as it may help you as well:
All of us had a father and, if this father was faithful, he had to discipline us. If a child is left to himself, he grows up to become a selfish tyrant. The point the writer made (Heb. 12:7–8) is that a father chastens only his own sons, and this is proof that they are his children. We may feel like spanking the neighbors’ children (and our neighbors may feel like spanking ours), but we cannot do it. God’s chastening is proof that we are indeed His children! Why do good earthly fathers correct their kids? So that their offspring might show them reverence (respect) and obey what they command. This is why the Heavenly Father corrects us: He wants us to reverence Him and obey His will. A child who does not learn subjection to authority will never become a useful, mature adult. Any of God’s children who rebel against His authority are in danger of death! “Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” (Heb. 12:9) The suggestion is that, if we do not submit, we might not live. “There is a sin unto death” (1 John 5:16).
We can see now how this twelfth chapter relates to the five exhortations in Hebrews. As a Christian drifts from the Word and backslides, the Father chastens him to bring him back to the place of submission and obedience. (If God does not chasten, that person is not truly born again.) If a believer persists in resisting God’s will, God may permit his life to be taken. Rather than allow His child to ruin his life further, and disgrace the Father’s name, God might permit him to die. God killed thousands of rebellious Jews in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:1–12). Why should He spare us? Certainly this kind of chastening is not His usual approach, but it is possible; and we had better show Him reverence and fear. He chastens us for our profit so that we might share His holy character.
Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Heb 12:7–11)
To share in God’s holiness is an equivalent expression to being conformed to the likeness of Christ. God knows exactly what He intends we become & He knows exactly what circumstances, both good & bad, are necessary to produce that result in our lives. God makes no mistakes. He knows infallibly with infinite wisdom what combination of good & bad circumstances will bring us more & more into sharing His holiness. He never puts too much of the salt of adversity into the recipe of our lives. His blending of adversity & blessing is always exactly right for us. The purpose of God’s discipline is not to punish us but to transform us. We can learn God’s will for our character intellectually through reading & studying the Scriptures—& we should do that. That is where change begins, as our minds are renewed. But real change—down in the depth of our souls—is produced as the tenets of Scripture are worked out in real life. This usually involves adversity. If you stop & think about it, you'll realize that most godly character traits can only be developed through adversity. The kind of love that gives freely of itself at great cost to itself can only be learned when we are confronted with situations that call forth a sacrificial love. The fruit of the Spirit that is called joy cannot be learned in the midst of circumstances that produce mere natural happiness. Trusting God
Not all discipline, of course, comes through persecution. God’s Word disciplines. Wise are those believers who train themselves to do God’s will by practicing those things that God has set forth in the Scriptures. In this way they may strengthen their hands and knees, and make straight paths for their feet. Thus the pursuit of peace along those paths can be rapid and effective. Rather than suffer the imposition of discipline from without, it is better to walk in the “more excellent way” of self discipline. God will discipline all of his children, either through the discipline of the Word, accepted and applied by them, or through the discipline of providential pressures, like the pressure of persecution or sickness. Competent to counsel
Finally, after reflecting on all of the above, keep in mind that not all hardship, trials, or suffering, is due to discipline. And there may well be times when we just aren't sure why something is happening. The reason for that is because we think of the word "discipline" as meaning "punishment", and it can mean that; but it also doesn't have to mean that. Confused yet? I sure was! Let me try to explain using a personal example. When some very hard times came on us some time ago, I wanted to know why, so I asked God and searched my heart with His help. I found no known, unrepented sin, so I could know that I wasn't being disciplined as far as the punishment aspect of it went. So I continued to ask the Lord to show me what it was He was trying to teach me. As I studied His Word with Him each day that week, He would point things out to me that were interesting, but didn't seem to answer my question about the trials. But by the end of the week, the light bulb went off and I was able to put all He had shown me together, which made me realize that I had fallen back into an old habit of mentally keeping a list of how someone had wronged me. I had not been obeying God by taking those thoughts captive and replacing them with His Truth, and realizing that I was just as bad as the person I was thinking about, yet God had forgiven me and never took His love from me; therefore that person deserved my complete forgiveness and love too, without me bringing up the past to them, myself or anyone else, for God never "remembers" our sins once we repent of them. Once I realized this, I knew the reason for the trials.
Yet another time, I again hadn't found any known unrepented sin, and when studying His Word with Him daily, I didn't see anything that convicted me in that way. What I did get from His Word though that week, was that trials come to everyone, but was reminded that God will use those that come to me to conform me to the image of His Son. My choice seemed to be to cooperate with God, obey His Word and trust Him, or disobey Him, complain about it and be miserable. I chose to trust and obey, and because of that, was eventually able to see that the trial had indeed drawn me into a closer relationship with Him. So I wasn't being disciplined in the way of punishment, but God went ahead and used it to my advantage and His glory.
Still other times, I've come to know that a time of trial was a test to see if I'd learned all that He'd been teaching me; to see if I would really trust Him this time, or if I'd just fall apart, whine, complain, get angry, etc and say it's all unfair. As I recognized it as a test, I sure didn't want to have to repeat the test again, so I cooperated and did my best to show that I knew I could trust Him. Because of that, He blessed me greatly, but then He always does when we trust and obey. (by the way, the test wasn't to show Him what I'd do, because He already knows. It was a test to show me how much I'd grown and how much I now trusted Him.)
Finally, there's also been times when hardship has come our way, that wasn't discipline, punishment, or a test. It happened simply because we live in a broken world. Thankfully, the Lord will always comfort us, encourage us, guide, and help us during these times, and will still use it for our ultimate good!
All this talk of obedience brings me to the second part that God says we need in order to know what His Will is, or know why something is happening: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2) We have to be separate from the world's way of thinking and have our minds and hearts renewed daily through His Word. We obviously can't know His will, if we don't know Him and His Word well.
Finally, I also want to quote the rest of that passage for you to consider:
“And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” 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!” (Hebrews 12:5–9)
“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. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.” (Hebrews 12:10–13)
|
|
!!
