Dear friend! How wonderful it is that God has granted us one more day for a productive living! I really want this day to be the most blessed and beneficial for you. Yesterday we started talking about what the purpose of God’s chastening for His children. And we saw that God chastises:
- To give us reassurance, security and safety;
- To express His love for us;
- To show us He accepts us;
- To encourage us to walk in His holiness;
- To teach us how we should and shouldn’t live.
Besides, God chastises and disciplines His children
- To make us productive and useful:
«…afterward it yields the peacable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it» (Hebrews, 12:11).
We read that God’s Word is profitable for the perfecting of the saints for every good work:
«All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work» (2 Timothy, 3:16-17).
Yet we can only gain something from the Word when we follow the instructions of the Scripture; otherwise God chastises us. In both cases the goal is one and the same: to prepare us for good works so that we could become instruments of God’s power and love, – an experienced ministers of His mercy. God desires for us not to be filled with dry theory, but to be able to share with other people what we have experienced in our own lives. God also chastises us
- To protect us from being condemned with the world:
«For if we 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» (1 Corinthians, 11:31-32).
So God chastises His children not for His own pleasure, but for our correction and for us to participate in His holiness. God does that in order for us to bring forth the peaceful fruit of righteousness and not to be condemned with the world. God disciplines us not because He just wants to; He does it when we refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit and God’s Word. That is what the following verses of Scripture talk about:
«For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men» (Lamentations, 3:31-33)
«For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged» (1 Corinthians, 11:31).
«And to the angel of the church of Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: „I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the firs. Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works”» (Revelation, 2:18-23).
God gives us more time to repent and judge ourselves according to His Word so that He would not have to do it to us. When we despise His warnings and the revelation of the Holy Spirit, God judges us Himself. He does it so that we would not be judged with the world. Tomorrow we will talk more about how God chastises and disciplines His children. But I also want to remind you that God’s mercy triumphs over judgment and His love towards us is boundless! May God abundantly bless every one of you! Pastor Rufus Ajiboye
