“Be keenly aware that just as a parent disciplines his child, the Lord your God disciplines you. 8:6 So you must keep his commandments, live according to his standards, and revere him.” — Deuteronomy 8.5 & .6

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Which brings us to the second aspect of discipline — the Lord’s discipline. When we sin against another, we are also sinning against God. I recall a Sunday school teacher who had just concluded a review of the day’s lesson. “And now, children,” he inquired, “who can tell me what we must do before we can expect forgiveness of sin?” There was a pause, but finally one little boy spoke up. “Well,” he mused, “first we’ve got to sin.”

While true, most of us do not have the problem of leading a life of sinless perfection. Although I’ve met people who think they do. I met one man who told me, “I haven’t sinned in 10 years!” I replied, “You just did, because even if you’re not lying it was pride that made you tell me.” No, sinning is the one thing we all have down pat. What the Sunday school teacher wanted the children to remember was that, to be forgiven we must ask for forgiveness. Sometimes our pride gets in the way of our admission of guilt before God and others. When this happens, the Lord Himself will sometimes step in to discipline us. As our Heavenly Father, He not only has the right but the obligation to discipline His children. Examine Hebrews 12.7-.13:

Endure your suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you do not experience discipline, something all sons have shared in, then you are illegitimate and are not sons. Besides, we have experienced discipline from our earthly fathers and we respected them; shall we not submit ourselves all the more to the Father of spirits and receive life? For they disciplined us for a little while as seemed good to them, but he does so for our benefit, that we may share his holiness.

Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness for those trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your listless hands and your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but be healed.

A while ago my dad broke his foot. Up fishing, he fell in the Colorado River after twisting his foot under a rock. He pulled himself out and up onto the bank, and noticed that his foot dragged. He stood and lifted it, and it flopped around beneath his ankle; it was put out of joint. After pushing himself backwards, with his arms, up the bank and the sides of the mountain, he made it close to railroad tracks which make their way through the valley, where he gained the attention and assistance of a couple of railroad workers.

In order to correct his foot, doctors had to perform surgery. They pushed his ball joint back into the ankle, and inserted a metal plate to keep it there till it healed. A painful process — but a healing process as well. Job says in chapter five, "How happy is the one whom God reproves; therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. “For he wounds, but he also bandages; he strikes, but his hands also heal.” I’m not saying my father endured the disciplining of the Lord, only that both are painful processes.

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