"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).
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