TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY JULY 22, 2013
CHASTISEMENT
DEFINITION:
Fatherly correction; discipline;
training.
SCRIPTURE:
My son, despise not the chastening of
the Lord, neither be weary of His correction: for whom the Lord loves He
corrects. Proverbs 3:11-12.
As a man chastens his son, so the Lord
thy God chastens thee. Deuteronomy 8:5.
KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:
The word chastisement as used in the
scriptures may be better understood today as correction. In the verses from
Proverbs that we have written above, the writer reminds us as children of God
not to despise the correction (chastisement) nor get weary of the correction
that God gives us.
In the verse from Deuteronomy we are
reminded that God corrects us just as fathers do who love their children. As
children we did not like it when our parents corrected us even though they told
us they corrected us because they loved us. We did not enjoy disciplining our
children but we knew we must do so because we loved them and were concerned
about them. This is a concept that most people do not understand today, both
from the position of giving the correction and receiving the correction.
Allowing children to do whatever they
want and giving them everything they ask for is not showing love because it is
not in the best interest of the child. Parents have a responsibility to control
the benefits that their children receive.
Parents also must understand that
discipline is necessary to teach a child right from wrong. Chastisement or
discipline was designed by God to correct us, to prevent us from sinning and to
bless us.
In Jeremiah 24: 5-6 we are given the
story of two baskets of figs --- one of good figs and one of bad figs. God
allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to defeat Jehoikim, the king of Judah because of their
sin and disobedience. The baskets of figs represented the exiles that were
taken from Judah to Babylon. This was God's chastisement on His people.
The good figs represented the good
exiles whose hearts were responsive to God’s chastisement. God blessed them and
eventually brought them back to Judah. The bad figs represented the bad exiles
who did not acknowledge God’s chastisement and continued in their sins and
eventually were destroyed. When God disciplines us it is never without a reason
and it is always for a purpose. The lesson for us is to keep our hearts
responsive to God's fatherly correction, and then He will bless us as He did
the good exiles.
In II Corinthians 12: 7-9 we are told
that Paul was tormented by Satan with what Paul called a "thorn in the
flesh." Three times Paul prayed
that the Lord would remove it, but when the Lord did not remove it Paul
realized his "thorn in the flesh" kept him humble and showed him he
must depend on the Lord and not on his own abilities. It kept him from the sin
of pride. God has designed correction to prevent us from sinning. And finally,
he corrects us so that we can be blessed. In Psalm 94:12, the psalmist says,
"Blessed is the man whom You discipline and whom you teach out of Your
law."
Children respond to correction in
different ways. When we think back to the days that we were raising our
children and needed to correct them, we remember different responses from each
one of our children as to how they would let us know they weren't happy about
being corrected. We had sometimes just "a look" and possibly a short
comment and a quick exit from the room. Others would like to argue their case
and question with a series of questions like, "Why" "How
come?" Even though they didn't want to hear it, we gave them a full
explanation. At other times we were just ignored.
No matter what their reaction we knew
that it was important to follow through and our discipline had to be
consistent. We also learned that discipline must not be given in anger.
Both the Old Testament and the New
Testament give us guides as to how we should respond to correction given us by
our Lord. In II Chronicles 6:24-31 we see that God desires that we repent in
response.
In II Corinthians 12:7-10 we see that we are
to show submission to God our Father. James says to “Humble yourselves before
the Lord and He will lift you up” (James 4:10). It is only as we are willing to
submit to God that we can experience His power and blessing in our lives.
We encourage you today to be responsive
to the chastisement of the Lord so that you can repent and change the behavior
that hinders your relationship with God.
LEARNING:
Our memory verse for this week is found
in Hebrews 10:36
For you have need of endurance, so that
when you have done the will of God, you may have received what was promised.
PRAYER:
Help me to be open to the corrections
that You have for me today. May I learn to respond to Your corrections for my
life with repentance and submission.
