Chastening

For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.  - Hebrews 12:10-11

None of us likes to be corrected. We may get the stage when we are mature enough to appreciate the need for correction or even discipline, but I don’t think we ever like it – at least I know I don’t.

I remember being chastened as a child. Back in those days the norm was to get a spanking. I still remember my dad’s plastic belt that stung like crazy. I didn’t like it when discipline came, but I needed it and in retrospect I know that I needed and deserved it. I’m not going to comment on corporal punishment, but to say that it did me no harm.

Chastening never seems pleasant for the moment. It is painful no matter what form it takes. We know that while our parents made mistake in chastening and we did as well, God never makes mistakes in His chastening.

God’s chastening has a purpose. It is to result in the ‘peaceable fruit of righteousness’ in our lives as we have been trained by God’s correction in our lives.

God only corrects His children. He does it in love and He does to produce righteous fruit in our lives. When we get off track we need to thank God for turning us around.

May God’s chastening produce those fruits of righteousness in our lives.