Growth

Result Not Replacement

When people ask me about what my parents did right, one thing that I often tell them is that they always made it clear that they loved me and they always made it clear that there were certain expectations for my behavior and if I violated those standards, I would be punished. I never thought that because they loved me, they wouldn’t punish me. I never thought because they punished me, they didn’t love me. They held the truths of their love and their discipline in tension, and passed on that understanding to me.

Not only was this great parenting, but it was an excellent mirror of the way that God treats His children. As Psalm 89:31-33 reminds us:

if they violate my statues and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.

In other words, our actions don’t change the truth of Who God is. In the preceding verses, it is clear that despite David’s descendants’ future transgressions, God would remain faithful to the covenant He made. Similarly those that are His children by putting repenting and putting their faith in Jesus Christ, He loves, and He will discipline. Discipline is a result of His love, not a replacement for it.

Let those we are His rejoice then –  even when we are the subject of the Lord’s discipline, we are still the object of His love.

 

Why is it important to remember that discipline is a result of God’s love?

 

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Growth Hope

Unknown Path

It’s tempting  to look back on the lives of people in the Bible and think that somehow their walk with God was  “easier” than ours. We say things like, “Well God spoke to them directly.” or “Jesus was right there with them” and think that their lives of faith didn’t require quite as much belief as ours do. Of course, this is only because we know the end of the story and somehow when you can see the end from the beginning it is easier to trust in God. Of course, this is a vantage point that the point who were living these stories didn’t share.

Take Abraham for instance. Known as the father of the nation of Israel, we may marvel at God’s work in allowing him to have a child in an old age, but we rarely fully consider what it must have been like for a couple who had been infertile all their lives, to welcome a child into this world well past their retirement age. Nor do we fully think upon what it must have been like for them to set out on their journey to the Promised Land. Calling it the “Promised Land” surely sounds inviting, but Hebrews 11:8b tells us that Abraham began his journey “not knowing where he was going.” Can you imagine that? The bags are packed, the herds are fed and your neighbors ask you – “So where are you heading?” “I don’t know,” you reply, “but God will tell me when I get there.”  That requires great faith. That requires confidence in God.

The same is true for the journey that God has us on. Often, we don’t know where the road that He is taking us on will lead. We may feel like we are going in circles. We want to know the final destination and God is asking us to take the first step, and then the next one, trusting that He longs to give good things to His children and that while there may be tough times along the path, we will see His goodness in the land of the living. Where He is leading us is not only for our good, but, more importantly, it is for His glory. We can trust Him not only because He knows the final destination, but because He designed the path and He’s walking the road with His children.

It’s hard to face the unknown. Yet as Corrie Ten Boom reminds us we should “never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Even when we don’t know where we are going, may we faithfully walk with the One who is leading the way.

 

To you, what does it mean to faithfully walk with God even when we don’t know where He’s leading?

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