Willingness Hebrews 12: 4-6

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

WILLINGNESS

Heb 12:4-6

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."  

NIV

Wow, it is good to be a son of God, but at the same time, we do not look forward to being either rebuked or punished just because we are his sons. Of course, his disciple is also good and we should feel safe and secure in our position as a son of God. We should be encouraged and, once again, we are not to lose heart. But who really wants discipline, rebuking, and punishment? Indeed, we have not resisted sin to the point of shedding our blood. In fact, at times, we give in to sin too easily. We allow ourselves to have an attitude we should not, and we allow ourselves to behave in ways we should not. We have thoughts about others that are not encouraging or beneficial. Yet, it does not seem that God has rebuked us, however, when we examine the Greek we see this word, paideia, which has a more direct meaning of training and education, plus what cultivates our soul, especially by correcting mistakes and curbing passions, to increase virtue. This sounds better than rebuke, which seems harsh. We are willing, in fact, very willing to accept all the training and education God has for us. We are also eager to allow God to cultivate our souls and, yes, correct our mistakes. This is not harsh treatment, for we know God loves us dearly and wants the best for us.  His love supersedes everything, and he acts within us lovingly, and caringly, even when he corrects or rebukes us. He knows our weaknesses better than we do, and shows us the better way, training us, educating us with his word, encouraging us to do better, be better, resist better, putting more and more trust in him, and less and less trust in ourselves. We want the Lord’s will to be done within us rather than our will, for we know ours is bent in the wrong direction. To even think that we are holy and righteous is foolish without the righteousness of Jesus. We cannot deny weakness either, knowing who we are being stuck in this corruptible body until Jesus comes back for us. If we are honest with ourselves, then we can truly be honest with our Father and accept all his training, education, correcting, or discipline freely and openly with an open heart and mind wanting his best for us, as his sons. It is all about our willingness.