|
God's Merciful Judgments
Victoria Boyson
www.boyson.org
Many in the body of Christ today see God as a Father who only dishes out endless desserts to His children, with lots of hugs and kisses. But is that really a
true picture of a loving Father?
The Word of God clearly says, "those he loves, he corrects" (Proverbs 3:12). It is possible at times to lose sight of what true love looks like. God's discipline is
as much an act of love as His blessings are. In fact, it is a blessing, because through discipline comes understanding.
Sometimes we act awful, but we are unable to see it. So, the Lord, in His kindness, shows us,
through the hurtful actions of others, what we are doing to the people we injure. It is then that we are able to see how our behavior wounds those we love.
I have been through situations when my actions have wounded
other people. Although I was able to see how my behavior hurt them, I was not really able to feel the pain I caused them. The Lord in His kindness then orchestrated different events and put me through the same hurtful
situations as I had put others through. Now I was able to feel clearly how the other people felt. This was God's judgment on me because of my actions toward others; it was His merciful judgment.
God wants us to
know how it feels when we hurt others so we will change, stopping any behavior that would harm His people. He uses painful situations to mold and shape us, and the best thing we can do is to let Him do it. If we despise His
correction, then we despise His love, because He disciplines those He loves.
"I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness you have afflicted me" (Psalm 119:75). It is not possible for our Lord to make mistakes in His judgments. They are always righteous! He allows us to be wounded out of His great faithfulness to us. He wants us to become all that He has created us to be and to be as loving and kind as He is. When we are hurt, our capacity to love increases.
The Gift of Understanding
"Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands" (Psalm 119:73). God has made us and formed us, and He has no intention of leaving well
enough alone. He will perfect us, and through His discipline we gain understanding.
Every parent knows that giving birth to a child is only the beginning of the work needed in order to prepare that child for adulthood.
Parents may, over time, have to yell, pinch, pull, prod, or spank that child into understanding. They want their child to know and understand what is right. They will do whatever they need to do in order to turn their child in
the direction of understanding.
God, in the same way, will not leave us or forsake us, but will do whatever it takes to perfect us. He will not leave us alone. He will discipline us, and that discipline is His way of
giving us the gift of understanding.
The Gift of Failure
God will allow us to fail again and again so that we might come to know and understand what it takes to succeed. He lets us fail so as not to lose
us to the sin of pride. He can teach us more through our failures and disappointments than we could have learned through a lifetime of successes.
Our failures can be the greatest gifts the Lord hands us. Of course, He does not want us to fail. That is not His desire. But if we need it, then He will allow it. God knew what passion would come out of the apostle Peter's failure. He denied Christ, but in light of that failure he became the first in history to win thousands to Christ in one single moment (see Acts 2:41). God also knew that the miracles pouring forth from Peter would be astonishing, so He prepared him ahead of time with failure, in the denial of the Christ whom he said he would die for (see Matthew 26:35 and 26:69-75).
God showed us the power of persistence in spite of failure in the life of Thomas Edison. When he created the light bulb, he had failed 1,073 times before he succeeded in lighting the whole world. He learned 1,073 times
how NOT to make a light bulb. In the same way, we learn what pleases the Lord through trial and error, or should I say failure. If we do not ever fail in our pursuit of pleasing God, we become arrogant and cold-hearted, and
don't please Him at all. We please Him more by enduring through our failures than without them.
Closed Doors, Open Windows
The Lord will close doors to us that we would very much like Him to open, so that He
may open the windows of heaven and give us something much greater - Himself. It is so easy to go our own way at our own pace, and we get ahead of God. But even if what we are doing is right, doing anything without God is
wrong. In His mercy, He closes doors of opportunity so that we might stop and deepen our intimacy with Him.
So often, we view the conclusion of the project we are currently working on as our goal. It may be our goal, but it is not God's. He desires, more than anything else, to develop our relationship with Him. That is His ultimate goal, and He will do whatever it takes to achieve it. That goal is much more important to Him than our successes.
In 1 Samuel 6, David failed at his first attempt to bring the ark of God into the city of Jerusalem, and it cost a man his life. Did this mean that God did not want the ark brought back into the city? After all, they
were doing it for Him. They were trying to please God. They were doing a good thing, right? But David and his men were trying to bring the ark back for God and not with God. God wants a partner, not a slave. More than our acts of goodness for God, He wants a relationship with us. Wow! He loves us so much that our friendship with Him means more to Him than the "works" we do for Him. That is incredible love!
Obedience, Not Sacrifice
In Genesis, chapter 4, why was Cain's sacrifice not accepted but Abel's was? Cain failed to work with God, doing what God wanted him to do. He wanted to worship God in his own way by bringing his own sacrifice instead of what was required. But his obedience was the worship that God wanted.
God did not need more beef (see Psalm 50:9). He wasn't hungry (see Psalm 50:12-13). His goal was not to get more beef or grain, but to determine Cain's love for Him shown through obedience. Sometimes our pride leads us
to give extravagant gifts to God that we have worked very hard on; Cain wanted to show God what he had been working on.
David said in Psalm 51:16-17, "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would
bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken spirit and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."
If God's discipline produces a broken spirit, then we are indeed blessed, because, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18). God cannot resist us when our hearts are crushed, much like a mother who has punished her child's stubborn behavior and finds, because of her discipline, his rebellion has melted away to reveal gentle submission.
Discipline Brings Understanding
"Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands" (Psalm 119:73). The Lord has promised you that He will never leave you or forsake you (see Joshua 1:5). You can take great comfort in this Scripture. But it also means that God will not leave you in the foolish condition He found you. He will not forsake the work He began in you. He wants, more than anything else, for you to become the person He has destined you to be. This is His goal and this is His joy. He delights in every aspect of your life. He desires to perfect all areas of your heart, not just the parts and pieces you desire to give Him. "My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in" (Proverbs 3:11).
And "Whosoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid" (Proverbs 12:1). Ouch! Whoever "hates" correction is stupid? You mean, God, that we have to love correction? Oh, boy! Do we have a ways to go yet? I guess we can start with this: It is only through the Lord's discipline that we can gain understanding. We need to see His mercy at work in our failures as well as in His judgments and correction. We surrender ourselves to the process of refinement, trusting that it is necessary for our own good. I guess we should stop feeling sorry for ourselves for the past and use the past to grow in grace so we can get to the good stuff.
Amen?
Pray this with me:
Oh God, help me to grow through Your discipline and not to despise it. May Your discipline have its perfect way in me, and may I love it.
Amen.
This message was taken from The Birth of Your Destiny by Victoria Boyson.
|
|
