Harvest of Righteousness

Friday 15 April
READ: Heb. 12:5-11
MORE LESSON: Prov.29:15

As a young man in secondary school, I never liked to hear the word “discipline” because usually it was used when you were to undergo punishment for an offence. You were disciplined with six or twelve strokes of the cane on your buttocks. You could also be asked to kneel down and raise your hands in the air for one hour, or to cut grass. At home, discipline was also not different. It was either you were deprived of your dinner or made to kneel down facing the wall, or forced to sit down inside the house while your mates played outside.
When I first read today’s Scripture passage some years ago, I was not comfortable that such a word is written in the Bible because of my concept of discipline. How can it be that the one whom God loves He chastises (disciplines)? Those who discipline us are never our friends, and we run away from them because we think they don't love us. If God will also punish me, why should I endure it and see Him as my Father? But with maturity and better understanding, I have come to appreciate this scripture and to understand that discipline is actually meant to make you conform to an order that will make your life meaningful. The rod was to drive away the “foolishness” that is bound in the heart of a child (Prov.22:15) so that wisdom can have room to thrive in the child. Discipline is meant to inculcate a behavioural pattern that will make you a better person to society and humanity in general. I have also come to know that those who disciplined us when we were young actually wanted the best of us to come to limelight. They did so because they believed in us and truly loved us. When you refuse discipline, you deny yourself of a training process. I believe that those who are robbers, vandals and perpetuators of violence on our streets today were either not disciplined (corrected, chastised) when they were young, tender and malleable, or that they did not take to discipline. Hence, they are what they are today.
God's chastisement is much more encompassing. The passage we read says: Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it : Heb 12:10 -11 (NIV). Note the following benefits of discipline from the passage and keep them in memory for life: 1) God's chastisement makes you share in His holiness. 2) It is a training that produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for you. Will you still resist discipline today?

Prayer/Action
* Lord, please forgive me of the sin of hatred towards those who disciplined me in time past and bless them.
* Lord, do not hold back Your discipline from me; help me to respond appropriately to Your discipline.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
Father, in Your mercy today, deliver me from indebtedness, in the mighty name of Jesus.