A Thought for Tuesday 8/20/13

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.”  Proverb 3:11-12 NKJV

The twisted notion that “the devil is out to get me” when bad things happen to us suggests we really have reached a point at which we believe the Lord to be our personal, magical genie who grants wishes and gives in to our hearts’ every desires.  We fail to understand the wisdom of the Proverbs in which the writer points out certain spiritual realities, not least of which is the Divine Love that reaches out when we go astray. It is not our Lord’s desire to indulge our every fantasy anymore than we would indulge our own children’s every demand.  Love is always more evident in “no” than in “whatever”.

This is not to suggest bad things always necessarily mean the Lord is correcting us.  Rather it is to understand that we must stop, “be still”, and evaluate where we are, what we are doing, and why we are doing it before we can know of the Lord’s part in it.  Life itself is not always fair, and wanting something does not mean we are entitled to have it.  Such a concept of personal indulgence is a perversion of Jesus’ words to His disciples to “ask anything in My name”.  Actually it is a perversion of just about any passage of the Scriptures removed from its appropriate context.  Often an entire chapter must be read before a single passage can make any sense.  A refusal to read and contemplate the entire text is a refusal to engage fully in the Divine Relationship.  One cannot know of a Savior one knows nothing about.

Greet the challenges of the day with joy and anticipation, for “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” – but the “Kingdom” is not of this world.  Our reward for faithfulness and enduring each day’s challenge in His Name and for His purposes is on the other side of the grave.  And it is not ours to take; it is wholly our Father’s to give.

Before that Day, then, we must be prepared and willing to endure a good “chastening” from time to time; it is the revelation of our Holy Father’s will, and it is the evidence of our Holy Father’s love.

Blessings,

Michael