Hebrews 12:5-11

No one likes to be chastened. Our children do not like to be chastened by us; we adults do not like to be chastened by those who hold authority over us. In fact, we are all disobedient, free thinking rebels at heart who deep down inside want to do what we want, when we want and how we want.

This should not surprise any of us, as this is the very attitude which led to the rebellion and fall of the angel Lucifer and his current state even to this very day; it is this very attitude which led to the sin of Adam and Eve and their ejection from the perfect Garden of Eden.

God chastens his children. He has a plan for each of us, and sometimes we simply don’t want to get with the program; we want to do our program, our way. Sometimes even as Christians, we backslide and want to enjoy our sin like the rest of the world. God does not simply sit back and watch this happen; when it happens He may choose to provide corrective action in the form of Holy discipline in our lives. This may run from simple guilt and conviction to a cosmic thump on the head.

Like wayward children or wayward employees, our first reaction to our Lord’s discipline is to bow up and resist. We shun correction even from the God who created us! This is not the proper attitude, and rather than hate the correction we should thank Him every time He rebukes and corrects us.

Why? If God chastens us, we are his. God is not out there chastening non believers; He only issues one call to the lost, and that is the call to repentance and faith. He is not going to waste his time, as no amount of positive adjustment on the part of a lost sinner will ever make them right with God. Read this last verse, and think on it when you feel resentful that your Father God has corrected you:

Hebrews 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

That is a sobering thought. Rather than be resentful of God’s loving correction when it happens, a person should be very worried if it does not happen.