Insights From The Book of Hebrews

        "Son, if I didn't love you, I'd just let you go your own way. I wouldn't care whether or not you learned how to make responsible choices. My discipline is a sure sign that I love you."

        Loving parents want their kids to understand that discipline and love aren't mutually exclusive ideas - that spankings and other forms of correction are not vents for parental anger, outbursts of frustration, or clubs wielded to abuse authority (and children).  Instead, parents want their kids to understand that real love requires discipline. 

        So why do we have such a hard time receiving discipline from our heavenly Father?  I don't know about you, but I must admit that my goal in life is, too often, comfort.  Freedom from pain.  Financial security.  Approval and encouragement from all who know me.  A computer that works like it's supposed to.  You know, heaven on earth.

        How different from God's perspective.  His goal is to conform us to His image, to make us holy (Hebrews 12:4-11).  In fact He assures us that never experiencing His discipline is reason to wonder if we really belong to Him (Heb. 12:8).

        Do you need some encouragement that God loves you?  Don't just look at the comforts He provides. Consider that discomfort He brings into your life as well.  They are tools of correction in the hands of your loving Father.       

         Sure, it hurts.  But metal bends better when softened with fire.  Marble takes shape only under the splintering blow of a chisel.  And whoever heard of smoothing wood without the abrasive scrape of sandpaper?

        A loving God using pain to produce good in His children may sound harsh, until you consider that the most loving thing He ever did was also the most painful - putting His only Son on the Cross.

        Let us welcome and endure His discipline, for it "yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Heb. 12:11).

   

Insights From The Book of 2 Thessalonians

          Paul is the author of the book of Thessalonians. Paul prayed that Jesus would grant the Thessalonians the same gift He gave the disciples on the night before He went to the cross:

                    "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not 
                    as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your
                    heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful." (John 1:27)

The peace the world gives is conditional. If we're healthy, if we have money in the bank, if we're secure in our relationships, only then can we say, "I'm at peace."

          Jesus, however, gives a supernatural peace that is independent of our circumstances. It's an "in-the-midst-of" peace. In the midst of sickness. In the midst of financial stress. In the midst of relational struggles.

       
          "The heart that has this kind of peace is like a lighthouse in a storm," writes author John White.
      

                     Winds shriek, waves crush, lightning flickers around it.
                     But inside, the children play while their parents go
                     about their work.  They may look out the window to 
                     marvel at the powers that rage around them, but they 
                     have peace - the peace of knowing that the strength 
                     which protects them is stronger than the strength of 
                     the storm.         

            Are you in the midst of a storm? What winds and waves are threatening your peace?

       Based on these verses from 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7, verses 2:13-14, verse 3:3 and 3:16; what reassurances do we have in the midst of our storms? Which of the truths of those verses speak the most directly to your situation?

            It's one thing to know that the Lord is faithful and that He is with you always. It's quite another to put your trust completely in Him. Take a moment to examine your heart. Are there some fears hindering you from receiving the gift of peace Christ offers?  Write them down; then take them to God in prayer, asking Him help in opening those frightened, closed places to the healing of His grace.

References:

2 Thessalonians 1:6-7

⁶ God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you ⁷ and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14

¹³ But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits^[a] to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spiritand through belief in the truth. ¹⁴ He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 3:3

³ But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.

2 Thessalonians 3:16

¹⁶ Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.