As you go about life, do you feel more condemned, punished, or disciplined? If you feel condemned, you’re feeling hopelessly abandoned. If you feel punished, you might not believe your situation is permanently hopeless, but in the day-to-day living, you feel overwhelmed. The consequences of life bring you to despair.
The one who punishes is selfish but the one who disciplines invests in a positive outcome. When you’re disciplined but not punished or condemned, you’ll experience a curious mixture of sorrow and hope.
God always disciplines those who are His children. Discipline requires an investment. As God disciplines you, He accepts the responsibility to see you become something more and better. God is on your side. God will never abandon you.
You can have eternal security and endure strong discipline from God at the same time. If fact, you can’t have one without the other.
“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 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? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Hebrews 12:6-8
God’s discipline is for your eternal benefit, not eternal condemnation. When you can feel the difficulty of life weighing on you, you can simultaneously recognize God is working to help you become better. God’s correction leads to hope. God cares about your life; He wants you to swim not sink.
God won’t simultaneously condemn you to hell and invest in your future. Sensing God’s discipline in your life is yet another way to validate your eternal security. You can confidently say, “I’m a child of God. God cares about me enough to correct me and keep me on the right path.”
Matt’s books,
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, contain practical exercises that help God’s truth spring to life.
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