Change

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

CHANGE

Heb 12:7-11

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

NIV

Not sure what kind of discipline we are talking about here. Not sure if we who live in America have even had to endure hardship. Although there may be some people who are enduring a form of hardship as far as not having a job, being unable to find a way to support themselves and their family, their bills are mounting up, credit card debt is over the top, and hope is being lost. There are others who have gone through very difficult relationships, abuse, divorce, having to see the hurt in their children’s faces. There are hardships that some encounter, but can we say there are the result of God’s discipline? Although surely God does bear responsibility for our spiritual welfare and thus disciplines, trains us in His ways for our own spiritual well-being. The Greek word here used as discipline is defined as train up a child, educate, by implication, discipline using punishment as a means to the end. How can we tell if any hardship that we encounter, is just a result of life, or God’s discipline? It would seem right to consider if the hardship will bring about an opportunity for spiritual growth and maturity. We could look to see if a hardship will bring us closer to righteousness and peace. It would make sense if we do encounter a hardship, whatever form it comes in, that we must get our eyes off of our own suffering and look to assist others that are affected by our hardship, this would produce the desired result God is looking for. Do we wallow in our own self-pity when we are in the midst of a hardship that is the result of God’s discipline? Or do we buck up and learn from it and grow in our understanding of what God is doing and why?  Again, we may not truly understand real hardship, as some in other parts of the world are enduring, but when some form of hardship comes our way, we must examine it and determine is God at work in our lives, or is it a result of our own actions or inactions? If it is our own fault we can change it, if it is God’s discipline we can change us. In most cases, many people do not accept change very well, but if God is the reason, then change we must.