Beatitudes #7—Disciplined for Good

Fortunate are those whom you discipline, O Yahweh, those you teach to follow your instructions in order to protect them from times of trouble, until the wicked are destroyed. Psalm 94:12–13

“This is for your own good” goes the old saying. God said it first. Obeying the gospel’s command to pledge allegiance to Jesus is critically important. If we do not, we will not live to experience God’s infinite, unexcelled, and irreplaceable worth. But there’s more: the gateway to life is narrow, but so is the way of life. For example, Jesus said that the attitudes of our hearts matter even more, than the actions of our hands. Therefore, he loves cheerful givers but not those who feel externally compelled. So he prompts us to stay on the path when it seems we might deviate. But sometimes he needs to take more drastic action. Sometimes we need the metaphorical “board of education” applied to the “seat of knowledge.” “The Lord disciplines those he loves, chastising everyone he acknowledges as his child. We endure in order to become disciplined. God is treating us as children. For what good parents do not discipline their children?” Therefore, we must “not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for he reproves those whom he loves, as parents the children in whom they delight.” God our father, and Christ our king, reprove and discipline us so that we can enjoy the benefits of being citizens of their kingdom. So it would be wise, when they do correct us, pointing us back to the instructions they have laid out for us, to be “zealous and repent.”

O Lord, I do not want to be condemned with the world. May I not resent or resist your correction!