For whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives….Furthermore we have had the fathers of our flesh as discipliners and we respected them; shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined for a few days as it seemed good to them; but He, for what is profitable that we might partake of His holiness.
— Hebrews 12:6, 9-10
After we see the vision of the Lord, we give ourselves to Him. What is the first thing the Lord has to do with us once we have given ourselves to Him? The first thing He must do is to discipline us. All of us are wild and lawless by nature. In a very real sense, we are untamable. Sometimes it seems that the Lord has no way to tame us because of who we are. Yet often we are proud of this. We sometimes boast to ourselves, “Look at how raw and wild I am! I struggle with the Lord all the time! It is so hard for Him to subdue me!” Then the Lord replies to us, “Look unto My hand. Give yourself to Me.”
If we don’t give ourselves to the Lord, if we don’t look unto the Lord’s hand, then His discipline will not profit us. Every time He comes in to discipline us we won’t recognize it. We will just cry out, “It’s not fair! I’m so unfortunate!” But if we look to the Lord’s hand, then even when He does just a little disciplinary work we will realize, “This is from the Lord.” We will realize it is the Lord’s hand, and we will know how to cry out for mercy. Then the discipline will be profitable. He will not only provide us with mercy but with the supply, the support, the leading, and the comfort that we need. It is this process of being disciplined and receiving the Lord’s mercy that gives us the experience of transformation.
Adapted from The Journey of Life, page 41.
Monday: “God’s Flowing Out”