Enduring discipline or correction or testings is never pleasant at the time it happens. Indeed, corrections and trials are things we seriously want to avoid!
Sometimes it feels like we are challenged, rebuked, stressed, hassled, and distressed more than others. It is not uncommon to ask, “Why is this happening to me?!”
Chastisements, corrections, trails, rebukes — all of these are painful experiences for every one of us. It is especially painful to our pride!
Yet, the Scriptures give us a wonderful word about our trials — the word is “nevertheless.”
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Hebrews 12:11)
Despite the pain, the grief, and the shame of corrections, trials, and discipline, the resulting FRUIT is most desirable, attractive, and pleasing — it is the peaceable fruit of righteousness!
The peaceable fruit of righteousness comes after the correction, the discipline, and the trial.
This fruit is the result of trials, chastenings, and corrections. This peaceable fruit of righteousness restores us, settles us, and eventually, it matures us, making us wiser and more discerning!
However, in order to obtain this wonderful fruit of righteousness, we have to accept and receive the exhortation from Yahuwah [the Hebrew word for the LORD]:
My child, do not despise the chastening of Yahuwah [the LORD], nor faint or become weary when you are rebuked by Him. For whom Yahuwah loves He corrects; even as a Father, the son in whom He delights. (Proverbs 3:11-12; see also Hebrews 12:5-6)
We need not become angry, resentful, or impatient whenever we experience correction or rebuke. Our heavenly Father sends these things to us for our growth in maturity, to learn to be gracious and of a meek and gentle spirit. It is for our good!
ALL of Father’s children need correction at times. And, as the Scriptures tell us, Father’s motivation behind His chastening is His great love for us!
Yet the fact still remains: No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but only grievous!
A Key to Receiving Discipline
So how can we endure chastisement, rebuke, and correction? Is there a key to recognizing our troubles as Yah’s discipline and correction when it is happening to us, and thus receive His correction, and patiently endure the grief?
A key, I believe, is having, and maintaining, an intimate relationship with our Creator/Saviour.
He knows us better than we know ourselves! So when we are enduring a trial, when we are being pressed, challenged, rebuked, and most likely being disciplined, that is the moment when we need to be close to our Saviour, seeking His help and rescue!
Our Saviour is in the business of rescue! Our Saviour, by His Holy Spirit, is the only One who is “a very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1b).
In order to know this “very present help” — in the NOW moment — we have to know our Saviour, Yahushua Messiah [Jesus Christ]. We have to be in a relationship with Him, where we are willing to cry out to Him, and then patiently wait upon His guidance in the midst of our affliction!
You do know what it is like to be in a relationship. Right?
In a relationship means we talk to Father God often, we share our life with Him, we get to know Him through His Word, we open up to Him, and we spend time with Him, giving Him time to reveal His direction to us.
- [If you are not yet in a relationship with the Saviour, please see Good News!]
Many times, I have known my Saviour’s rescue because I know Him! By His mercy, I have cried out to Him, and have known His ‘very present help!’ That is, I have known His intervention in the midst of my troubles and conflicts — in the midst of [what I later understood as] Father’s loving chastisement and correction.
Let me say . . .
There are times when our troubles are due to persecution for our commitment to our Saviour, Yahushua Messiah. When we walk in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake, and stand firm against ungodliness, then troubles are impossible to avoid. Why? Because the god of this world has hardened the hearts of many.
As Yahushua warned us: “In the world, you shall have tribulation.” But He also gave us the hope of victory at the same time: “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).
Let me also say . . .
There are times when our troubles are due to testings from the Father. Testings are sent our way to help us make a firm commitment to God and His Word. Father God tests us to refine us and purify us and to show us what is really in our heart. These kind of trials are meant to strengthen our precious faith.
The apostle Peter exhorts us: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Yahushua Messiah [Jesus Christ].” (1Peter 1:7)
No matter what kind of troubles, whether they be trials from persecution, trials from chastisement, or trials that test our faith, the key to enduring and rescue is staying close to our Saviour, and seeking His ‘very present’ help and rescue!!
Crying Out
If we will cry out for Father’s help, [because He is right there with us], then one of two things usually occurs:
- we are enabled [by His grace!] to humble ourselves, change our attitude, seek forgiveness, repent of hard-heartedness, and receive the necessary correction; or
- the situation changes, and often — this is what is so amazing — the other people involved change their stance, and their attitude.
So remember two things:
- Father loves you!!
- Father is present in the here-and-now by His Holy Spirit!
When we are in the midst of a trial, a testing, a dilemma, a troubling difficulty, call on Him for His help! Then we will know His intervention, His help!
- Look up these eight promises from those who cried out for Yahuwah’s help:
Psalms 34:6,17; Psalms 86:7; Psalms 91:15; and Psalms 107:6,13,19,28.
Father’s Corrections Are For Our Good
Having a relationship with our Creator is so amazing! So wonderful! God is near to us at all times! By His grace and mercy, He strengthens, guides, and corrects — correcting for our good (Hebrews 12:10)!
If our troubles are due to Father’s corrections and disciplines, then remember — these are necessary for us to mature, gain wisdom and understanding, and avoid problems — if we will receive His correction.
This is the way it is for all of God’s children!
We all must pass through troubles to enter into His Kingdom (Acts 14:22)! There is no other way to grow up in Messiah — we must receive His correction and discipline, and be patient in the midst of our troubles, because this is His way of instructing us! It is His way of refining us.
Father sends testings, trials, unpleasant challenges, conflicts, and sufferings our way in order to refine us, correct us, humble us, prove us, and to build up our faith!
Father tests us and tries us, to show us what is really in our heart (Deuteronomy 8:2).
Yes, His discipline is not pleasant! Actually, Yahuwah’s chastisement can be very painful and humiliating!!
Yet it is necessary for bringing us into that very precious condition of a broken-hearted, contrite [sorrowful] spirit (Psalms 34:18).
His discipline is nesessary for us to be able to see our errors and sins — see and acknowledge our arrogance, and begin to be sorry, repentant, and become more patient with others and with ourselves!
It is our pride, our stubbornness, our hard heart, that blinds us! — and gets us into the most trouble!
It is our pride that always tells us: “I am in the right, and ‘they‘ are in the wrong!!”
Irritated, Troubled, Rebuked
So the next time we are feeling irritated, challenged, rebuked, hassled, stressed, or distressed, AGAIN — remember, we could well be experiencing another one of Father’s loving moments of discipline, chastisement, or testings!
We are not alone! Father loves all of His children, therefore He has been correcting and testing His children from the beginning. And since the Psalms and Proverbs give us an up-to-date understanding of Father’s ways, we can easily see that it is because Father loves us, therefore He corrects us and tests us:
- “For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.” (Psalms 73:14)
- For whom Yahuwah [the LORD] loves He corrects; even as a father (corrects) the son in whom he delights. (Proverbs 3:12)
- The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Yahuwah [the LORD] tests the hearts. (Proverbs 17:3)
“Chastisement is intended for instruction, and instruction should go along with chastisement. … The best of God’s children need chastisement. They have their faults and follies, which need to be corrected.” — Matthew Henry
Yahuwah’s correction and discipline is loving and is for our ultimate good!
Here are five ‘ultimate good’ reasons for Father’s discipline and corrections:
- So that He can be near us, if we have a humble, sorrowful heart (Psalms 34:18; 51:17),
- So that we may become a partaker of His holiness (Hebrews 12:10),
- So that we may become spiritually mature and of full age (Hebrews 5:11-14),
- So that we may become patient and teachable, able to learn His ways (Psalms 25:5; 86:11; 119:124; 143:10),
- So that we may reap the wonderful, peaceable fruit of righteousness!
If we will cry out to our Rescuer whenever we are experiencing what is (probably) His loving discipline, then we will begin to have the spiritual understanding to see His salvation on our behalf (Exodus 14:13).
- [The book of Proverbs has excellent guidelines for how to receive Yahuwah’s loving discipline.]
All responsible parents want their children to be good and a credit to their name. Responsible parents train, discipline, encourage, and correct their children, teaching them what is right and good. Yahuwah, our loving Father and Creator, is no different!
In the midst of our very unpleasant difficulties and troubles, let us remember — Father disciplines those whom He loves!
May it be that we will endure humbly, patiently, and gratefully receive His corrections, knowing that it is for our ultimate good!
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Related Articles:
- Whom Father Loves, He Corrects
- God’s Faithful Warning Signals: Learning Our Lessons
- Acquiring a Teachable Heart
- Fight The Good Fight of Faith
- Seven Prayers and Seven Answers
- Building The Walls of Our Character
- Prayer – Our Life-line to The Father
- Sorrows and the Holy Spirit
- The Way of the LORD
Matters of the Heart — a post by Grace in Torah giving some detailed insights on preparing our heart for the myriad of life’s tests
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Cold Waters to a Thirsty Soul
Cold Waters to a Thirsty Soul 
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