Proverbs 3:11-12 My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.
Can you tell the difference between a trial and a chastening?
A trial is for the purpose of building character and patience. A chastening is for the purpose of correcting and instructing.
Both hurt just the same, but each are equally necessary and an absolute requirement for anyone who desires a closer relationship with Jesus.
In your life as a follower of Jesus, you will make many mistakes and sin every day of your life, all the way up and until you depart this earth. We live in bodies of sin that are in constant conflict and battle with the spirit within us that has been Born Again. It is a daily struggle to avoid sin or even the thought or intent to sin.
Aren’t you glad you read today’s Daily Walk?
I know, it is depressing sometime to realize that during our entire life we are going to make so many mistakes and bad choices. It makes you wonder why Jesus would even want to save someone like us in the first place.
Long before the Lord decided to create each one of us, He was already aware of all the mistakes we were going to make. He loved us then and He loves us still, now as we continue to fail. It is in these many moments of failure that the Lord shows His greatest compassion for us. When we are not willing to turn from things that could lead to our eventual destruction or falling away from Him, He brings chastening.
Proverb 3:11-12 is an encouragement to allow the Lord to chasten us and endure and learn from the chastening, when we are required to go through those times in our life. When you know that what you are doing is not right and you persist in doing it anyway, your Father loves you too much to allow you to remain in sin for too long. He will bring a difficulty or loss into your life to get your eyes back on Him and your life back into the conformity of living righteously.
Chastening is only for sons and daughters, it is not for the rest of the world who are not yet in a personal relationship with Him. As any earthly father disciplines his son or daughter when they become entangled in anything that will harm them, so also will your Heavenly Father discipline you and I when we get off track.
Hebrews 12:5-7 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”
How you respond to this chastening will dictate how severe the chastening will be and how long it will last.
Hebrews 12:7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
A person who thinks that he or she is a Christian but never undergoes a time of correction when he or she is in disobedience, is not really a son or daughter at all.
The very fact that you suffer when you are in sin, is a testimony to the fact that you really belong to the Lord. If you were not a son, He would not correct you. Not very many people would go into someone else’s house and correct their children. On the other hand, the children of your own household should expect that their dad is going to punish them when they make mistakes.
Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
In our walk with the Lord today, perhaps we would be wise to look closely at our life and judge ourselves as to what areas we need to correct. It is far better that we see ahead of time what needs to be corrected, and make the correction ourselves rather than wait for our Father to correct us.
1 Corinthians 11:28-32 But let a man examine himself… For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
Rob Robinson
