In truth, I find myself resistant to God’s training and discipline. I find myself saying what my kids often say, “It’s not fair.” When hardships, trials, disappointments, and challenges come my way, I see them as things to avoid or resist or to find my way around. Other times, I look at hardships and challenges in my life as punishment for something I’ve done wrong. Or I wasn’t good enough at something and God is disappointed with me. 

Do you ever find yourself repeating the same things over and over to your children? When my kids were little, I often said “No” more times than I could count. Another favorite was “don’t touch.” These days, a phrase I often resort to is “because I said so.” My kids don’t like that phrase because it means the conversation is over. They view it as a cop-out, as a reason that’s not actually a reason.

I figure one day, they’ll have kids of their own and then they’ll understand why I say it.

The Lord’s Discipline

But these conversations I have with my children about rules and consequences, discipline and authority, often highlight for me my own heart and my own response to the way God works in my life. In truth, I find myself resistant to God’s training and discipline. I find myself saying what my kids often say, “It’s not fair.” When hardships, trials, disappointments, and challenges come my way, I see them as things to avoid or resist or to find my way around. Other times, I look at hardships and challenges in my life as punishment for something I’ve done wrong. Or I wasn’t good enough at something and God is disappointed with me.

Seldom do I pause to consider, “What might God be doing here? What might he want me to learn? How is he using this situation to make me more like Christ?”

The author to the Hebrews wrote to Jewish believers a letter exhorting them to persevere and run their race of faith with endurance. He taught them that Christ was greater than Moses, angels, and priests. He pointed them to Christ’s sufferings for their sake and urged them to look to him in the face of their own trials and sufferings.

In chapter 11, we have the hall of faith, a list of saints who lived by faith, most of whom did not see their reward in this life. Then, in chapter 12, the writer encouraged them not to grow weary in their own race of faith. He wrote about God’s discipline, and encouraged them to cast aside their sin and stay in the race, remembering the gospel and what Jesus did for them. Because it’s easy to grow weary, he reminded them of who they were as children of God.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]