Learning to Appreciate and Cooperate with the Discipline and Chastening of the Lord

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world". C.S. Lewis from 

The Problem of Pain

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Often when we have discussions about growing in godliness or being sanctified or being transformed we overlook the very important element of that process called the discipline or chastening of the Lord. This is obviously not something we can plan or initiate. Nor is it something most of us welcome or look forward to. But it is a crucial part of our growth in Christlikeness. And the more we see that - the more we can appreciate it and receive it when God decides it is time for us to be disciplined or chastened. Please know that we can read every book out there on Being Sanctified or Growing in godliness or holiness, but there are certain unclean things deep in our souls that only get exposed, cleansed and removed by this vital process of God's chastening and disciplining of His beloved children.

Two of the best examples of this in the Old Testament are Joseph and David/Psalmists. Not long ago I was meditating on Genesis 41 wherein Joseph is found naming his two sons. Both of their names reflect important lessons he learned through his afflictions – the two major afflictions being his brothers selling him as a slave to a band of Midianites (see Genesis 37:23-28) and being falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned while serving Potiphar (see Gen. 39-:6-20). Gen. 41:51 informs us, “Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, “for,” he said, “God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.”  This name “Manasseh” means “causing to forget” or “making forgetful”. And the idea is God helped him work through the emotional pain of how his brothers treated him. He didn’t literally forget what they did. But he was able to see God’s goodness and God’s hand in it all.  Vs. 52 states, “He named the second Ephraim, “For,” he said, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Ephraim means double fruit or fruitful. Even though Joseph was  falsely accused, thrown in prison for a while (and forgotten by the baker and the cupbearer while in prison), God used it to make him more aware of God, dependent upon God, confident in God’s faithfulness and useful in God’s hands (see Psalm 105:16-21). And it was after being released from prison and restored to rulership that Pharoah gave him his daughter with whom he had two sons.

When I look back on my short life on planet earth, I can clearly see a number of seasons of God’s discipline and chastening to further chisel away at my flesh/carnality. Most of them revolved around major moves to different cities or nations wherein we encountered a variety of challenges and difficulties that eventually exposed sin areas that God was ready to deal with. Some of the most life transforming works of God in my life came in those seasons. I can’t say I enjoyed any of them. But I am very thankful for the fruit wrought by them.

King David knew this work of God well. For instance he wrote in Psalm 39, “With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity; You consume as a moth what is precious to him; Surely every man is a mere breath.” Psalm 39:11   Please note especially for God’s children, He chastens, not condemns. He knows what in our lives is causing us to continue in sin, and thus prevents or hinders the intimacy He so desires with us. So He exposes those things through challenging circumstances He brings into our lives so that we can be freed from them and not waste any more of our lives.

We don’t know for sure who wrote this Psalm. Very possible David did. But either way the following verses have become a precious promise to me over the years, “Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord, And whom You teach out of Your law; That You may grant him relief from the days of adversity, Until a pit is dug for the wicked.” Psalm 94:12,13   Now God teaches us out of His law sometimes without chastening. But there are some lessons that we can only be awakened to by certain God ordained circumstances that get to the root issues in our lives. While those circumstances may be painful, the fruit is great blessing that prepares us to overcome coming times of adversity on the earth.

We don’t know who wrote Psalm 118 either. Could have been David. Either way, he testifies, “The Lord has disciplined me severely, But He has not given me over to death.” Psalm 118:18  His discipline will be severe when it needs to be but always out of love for His child and with limits to its severity.

Therefore because of these truths above King Solomon exhorts us, “My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof, For whom the Lord loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” Proverbs 3:11,12  When God in His love and mercy and goodness leads us into a time of discipline and chastening, the enemy is hot on his heels, seeking to convince us our difficult circumstances are proof that God does not love us. We must never give an ear to these sinister lies brethren! He can only relate to us out of His overflowing love for us. Everything we ever experience somehow must be seen through that lens.

God forbid that we be like the people of Israel whom God rebuked through the prophet Jeremiah when he said, "In vain I have struck your sons; They accepted no chastening. Your sword has devoured your prophets Like a destroying lion. - Jer 2:30  Not responding appropriately to God’s loving chastening has devastating effects on us and those around us.

The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews was very familiar with God’s revelation in the Old Testament about this most important work of God’s chastening and also very aware that the new believers he was writing to were not responding as they should to God’s dealings with them, “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLNE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM;  6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”  7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  8  But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.   11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”     Hebrews 12:4-11   Every child of God must be deeply grounded in these truths to receive what God wants them to receive from seasons of discipline and chastening. Especially the truths that all of His discipline comes out of His loving heart towards us and while these seasons can be painful – for those who have learned to receive them and be trained or transformed by them – the “peaceful fruit of righteousness” will be our reward.

Jesus said to the church in Laodicea, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”  Revelation 3:19   There are no exceptions to this rule. Our response should be a holy zeal to receive it and repent of whatever He reveals to us is displeasing in our lives – that brought on the discipline.

Finally let us remember the chastening (not for His sin but for ours) that our wonderful Savior endured for our sakes so that we could overcome in all of our chastenings, “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”- Isa 53:5

May the Holy Spirit enable each of us in 2026 to receive His discipline and chastenings with a holy and thankful zeal to repent of our sin and love Him all the more for His glory in Jesus’s name. Amen!