God’s Discipline

 Scripture:

“Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, they will each turn from their wicked ways; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin.”” ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭36:3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Observation:

God speaks here to Jeremiah about the people of Judah and you can hear the heart of God ringing out about His heart. He longed for His people to repent and turn from their ways, so that He could forgive them and bless them. He was planning to allow their enemies to triumph over them, so that they would turn to Him and He could forgive them and restore them. God’s heart in discipline is always to cause us to return to Him so He can forgive us and restore us.

Application:

Hebrews tells us that those who the Lord loves, He chastises. He does this simply so we will turn from what we are doing wrong and run into His arms of love and forgiveness. When we mess up, God is not trying to punish us for our sins, He is simply trying to get us to turn back to Him and to trust Him.  His long game is always to bring us back so He can forgive us and bless us. He doesn’t revel in seeing us suffer. He simply wants us to depend on Him and trust Him.

Prayer:

Lord, You are incredible and I appreciate You more every day. Help me to see your discipline correctly. Help me to see that Your desire is always to bless me and help me, but in order to do that, I need to turn away from things You don’t want for my life and turn to You with all my heart. Help me to always be responsive to You. I never want to walk away or go in a direction that You don’t lead. I want to walk in step with You the rest of my life and to see Your good hand revealed.

Yours,

Jeff