The Mercy of Discipline

Remember the "series" I was writing on the Lord's discipline? Here's the last installment. It's been nagging at me that I should post it, despite not having the time to sit down and properly finish it. Here's where it's at, sans completing and editing, so take it for what it is...


And finally, the mercy of His discipline. Ah, yes. So many thoughts here, and such gratitude! Again Romans 1: although my sin might feel justified, enjoyable, and right, the fact is that it is not. Facts must guide feelings. It is a mercy that God gives us His word to help guide our feelings back to the truth! And it is a mercy that He doesn't treat His children ultimately with the judgment of Romans 1, giving us over to a debased mind and all manner of impurity. For we know that the final result of sin is death.

Let me paint you a picture for a moment of how this might be so. Humor me? Say that at first, you simply fail to give the Lord His due honor in your life. You're slacking off on devotions (hypothetically, right?) which deprives you of a great spiritual resource. So you're kind of breaking the first commandment, but after all, who can really keep that one? But it bleeds over to not feeling like you really have to go to church because you're so tired or you are traveling that weekend or there is a REALLY IMPORTANT football game and you have to make all the snacks before the big party. Shoot, there goes the third commandment. Ok, not the end of the world, you are headed back to church the next week, and you're trying really hard to get back into devotions, and nobody's perfect.

But then? There is this discontent creeping in. Maybe with your body, your clothes, your house, your kids, your husband, your church, I don't know your life. Right there in that list, you can probably identify the roots of a handful of further sins. Covetousness, for starters. And if you feel under-appreciated at home, if you give and give to the kids and you're disappearing into the peanut butter without anybody noticing that your brain has liquefied and you've stopped even putting on your makeup and pants that zip (hypothetically, right?), the coveting somebody else's job or life or marriage is low-hanging fruit indeed. From coveting might spring a blossom of adulterous thinking and after that, well, it's a hop, skip, and a jump over to serious angry and murderous thoughts, and let's just be thankful that total depravity does not equate to utter depravity, shall we?

Does that seem like a stretch, for your failure to honor God above all else to result in death, at least in your heart? It's not. If God were to give you over to your sin and remove His restraining grace, this is where you would end up. Not only the penalty of death at His hands, but the fruit of death in your life here and now, too.

So it is a mercy that He gives us discipline to weed out our sin, and there is mercy in the way He disciplines as well. He loves us, beloved, and would purify us here and now in the refining fire of His love and holiness. Which doesn't sound like a particularly comfortable process; but a weed is more easily plucked before its taproot has dug down very deep, so the sooner you yield to His word, the more pain you might avoid. Yes and amen to God's way for our lives, as He teaches us in His word. Simple, but not effortless. Nothing worth having is very easily obtained.

And thank God for the shed blood of Jesus, which renders our souls clean before the Lord, and our efforts toward holiness a sweet offering rather than filthy rags in His sight.