Discipline

 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
Hebrews 12:7 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.12.7.ESV

We might not like the thought of being disciplined. Yet discipline is a quality we all need to develop. By being disciplined, hopefully we become disciplined.

God can use difficult circumstances to discipline us. The Hebrew Christians were coming to realise that the Christian life requires endurance. They were being persecuted for abandoning Judaism for Christ.

The writer to the Hebrew Christians was helping them to realise that God could turn what seemed like a negative into a positive. Getting disciplined by our parents never felt good at the time. Yet hopefully it produced the good outcome of making us disciplined.

None of us are naturally self controlled. We need God to develop that fruit in us. He often does so through challenging circumstances, but He always gives us the grace to endure.

'Dear Father in heaven, please help us to endure Your discipline and so to thrive spiritually. In Christ's name we pray, amen'

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