The Discipline of God
Define discipline: Training expected to produce a specific type or
pattern of behavior-
___Websters II New Riverside University Dictionary,
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1984, p. 383
A. Proverbs 3:11,12 (KJV) My son, despise not the chastening [#4148, correction] of the LORD;
neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth;
even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
B. Immediately the question, "Why?" comes to mind.
1. Why does a loving God seemingly step back and
let negative things into our lives?
a. Quote: Misfortune does not always come to injure. -Proverb (Italian)
b. Quote: Our bravest lessons are not learned through
success, but misadventure. -Alcott
2. Job pondered it in the depths of his illness.
a. "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
__Helen Keller quoted in: Barbara Rowes, The book of Quotes, Dutton
b. At the Nicene Council, an important church meeting in the 4th century A.D.,
of the 318 delegates attending, fewer than 12 had not lost an eye or lost a hand
or did not limp on a leg lamed by torture for their Christian faith.
______Vance Havner
3. Jeremiah uttered it in his despondency.
4. Jesus cried out on the cross, "Why..."
C. Heb. 12:6 (The MSG), "It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;
the child he embraces, he also corrects."
1. God’s discipline can help develop our full potential.
2. Quote: The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don’t
want to do, in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be.
_________Tom Landry.
3. Ps. 119:71, It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
Conclusion: Discipline allows us to be corrected by God so
we can learn and grow and not become
conceited or go astray.
___www.intothyword.org
