As I thank God for His chastisements in my life regardless of painfulness, I also remember and thank Him that Jesus Christ was pierced for my transgressions, crushed for my iniquities, and that He was chastened for my well-being, that by His scourging I’ve been healed.  Thank God that “the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”  

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid” (Proverbs 12:1).

Prayers of thanksgiving are prayers of gratitude, joy, and rejoicing.  They include thanking God for the positives in our lives, such as redemption in Christ, eternal life, family, friends, health, well-being, faith community, and any and all of God’s blessings. We are agreed that thanksgiving prayers are for positives, aren’t they?

Well, maybe not!  A prayer of thanksgiving exists that is merited but perhaps rarely, if ever, expressed in personal or corporate prayers.  In fact, it could be called the Great Omission.  It’s because we consider the action represents more a negative than a positive. So what is this Great Omission; is there a biblical reference to it?

This is my 60^th year as a Christian.  It’s been a long, blessed and challenging trek down through valleys and up on mountain tops of experience.  God has been faithful; and I have been faithful sometimes, but sometimes not. I’m not proud to admit this.  Our corporate confessional prayers often address omissions of faithfulness on our part.  Sins may be sins of either commission (what we do) or omission (what we fail to do).

We also pray together corporate prayers of thanksgiving, and we express thankfulness in our individual, personal prayers.  So what can be missing in these prayers?  What could be the Great Omission in these beautiful, positive prayers?  Why has it taken me 60 years of believing in and following Jesus Christ to realize what is missing in my life and prayers?  Just recently, it finally dawned on me in life’s sunset years (Dawning in sunset—what an irony!) that my personal Great Omission is that of not thanking God for chastising me when I sin.  I, as perhaps many Christians, have experienced God’s chastisement when I have sinned.  I subsequently erred in considering it coincidence or a natural consequence rather than divine chastisement.

Some chastisements occurred quite palpably, but I ignored the evidence.  Moreover, I failed to thank God for them, which means I also ignored the unambiguous proof of His positive love for me.  After all, didn’t my parents chastise or discipline me because they loved me?  Of course, I didn’t thank them either at the time; but later in life, as I matured, I was thankful for such proofs of their love and their desire to build into me character, virtues, and rightness of life and relationships with others.  Likewise, God’s chastisement when I sin is intended to cause me to repent of that sin in order to restore me in fellowship with Him and to conform me to the image of Christ. That’s not a negative; it’s a genuine positive!

Coming to this poignant realization of what was missing in my prayer life and relationship to our Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—I wondered if God’s divine revelation mentions or sheds light on chastisement.  Yes, there are passages that speak to God’s chastisement in our lives as positive.  Chastisement may result in physical, mental, or emotional pain.  It may not be explicit as to thanksgiving, but it is fact that chastisement is a blessing; and we do thank God for blessings, don’t we?

The first reference is in the book of Job, where God allows one of His godly ones to suffer at the whims of Satan to test him.  And Job’s friend, Eliphaz, said this to him:

Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves,
So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty (Job 5: 17).

But many of the references to chastisement are in the Psalms, as David especially was sensitive to his sin and God’s chastisement on him:

Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord,
And whom You teach out of Your law . . . (Psalm 94: 12).

The Lord has disciplined me severely,
But He has not given me over to death (Psalm 118: 18).

It is evident the person who is chastised by God and recognizes it is a happy and blessed person.  Such chastisements are like our parents’ loving spankings—not severe beatings.  The real beating for our sin(s) was taken by another of whom the prophet Isaiah prophesied to be coming:

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him (Isaiah 53: 5-6).

For Christians, we see Isaiah prophesying the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and his sacrificial crucifixion and death on our behalf and atonement.

I regret it took me so many years—but thankful I learned before too late—to recognize such chastisements and to realize God deserves my thankfulness for His loving chastisements in my life.  I pray others will learn this sooner than later.  God’s chastisements may occur for either sins of commission or omission.  According to our sensitivity, they may appear small and inconsequential or large and consequential; what matters is they represent rebellion against God, and He deigns to call us out for OUR good.

What is important here is that God’s chastisement is real and continues yet today.  The reason it continues is because His love continues and desire for us to be reconciled and restored in fellowship with Him and conformed to the image of His beloved and only begotten Son.

And now, as I thank God for His chastisements in my life regardless of painfulness, I also remember and thank Him that Jesus Christ was pierced for my transgressions, crushed for my iniquities, and that He was chastened for my well-being, that by His scourging I’ve been healed.  Thank God that “the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” 

Let’s add specific thankfulness to our prayers for God’s chastisement on us when we sin and resist this Great Omission.  It’s a great reminder of His great love for us.

Helen Louise Herndon is a member of Central Presbyterian Church (EPC) in St. Louis, Missouri. She is freelance writer and served as a missionary to the Arab/Muslim world in France and North Africa.