◄ He Dares To Discipline! ►

My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline, and do not faint when he corrects you" (Heb. 12:6, Wey.).

Most of us sought to avoid our natural father's discipline, when he sought to administer it. And most of us seek to avoid our heavenly Father's discipline, until we finally learn that "He does it for our certain good, in order that we may become sharers in His own holy character" (Heb. 12:10, Wey.).

"There is an idea that often troubles people, namely, that God always wants to bring us down when He chastens us. When He corrects a man it is not that He may bring him down, but that He may lift him up. He says, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time' (1 Peter 5:6). I discipline my child in order that I may exalt him morally."

"Our Father purges us on the principle of we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake.' In service you are sure to find some kind of pressure on you. "It may be on your body, and often is; or it may be persecution; but you will hardly ever have a fruitful field of service before you, unless you are crippled for it. He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.'"

"We come to feel our need, and often attempt independently to supply it by our own means; the Lord must confound us in the attempt; but having done so, He leads in dependence to find and acquire an inconceivably greater answer to our wishes than even that which we prescribed for ourselves. The prodigal only sought sustenance' from the citizen in the far country,' but back in his father's house he found not bread merely, but abounding welcome and a fatted calf."

"For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines: and he scourges every son whom he acknowledges" (Heb. 12:6, Wey.).