LifeLink Devotional

Friday, November 23, 2018

Colossians 4:2  Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Welcome to Black Friday. Shoppers all over the nation spent at least part of their Thanksgiving sitting with family members browsing store advertising, highlighting wanted items, cutting coupons, and planning a shopping strategy that will hopefully provide the best opportunity to achieve maximum shopping success. For many, today is the day that determines the quality of their Christmas celebration. Unfortunately, today is also the day that exposes the lack of quality in their character. Black Friday is appropriately named, because all the light of a thankful heart can easily get extinguished.

I thank God that getting any gift for the lowest possible price has nothing to do with the value of my life. I also thank God that the outcome of my shopping experience has no effect on the outcome of my faith.

So far this week, in our study of Thanksgiving, we learned about the attitude of gratitude, and the activity of being thankful for what God has done, what God is doing in our lives, and what God is doing in the lives of others. Today we conclude with thoughts about being thankful for what God is going to do.

Prayer is the place where we discover what God is going to do, and we are encouraged to engage in prayer with an attitude of Thanksgiving. There are two reasons for this. First, praying with thanksgiving demonstrates trust and confidence in God’s perfect plan even before we hear it. And second, praying with a thankful heart protects our attitudes when we don’t get the answer we expected.

Do you remember the two acrostics God gave us for the words TRUST and THANKS?

TRUST – Totally Relying Upon Sovereign Timing

THANKS – Trusting His Attributes Not Knowing Specifics

When viewed in the context of Black Friday, these two statements seem illogical. Which of you would thankfully get in your car this morning at 10:00 AM and drive to your favorite store without a shopping list, relying only on good timing? We would probably find you grumbling and complaining while stuck in a traffic jam, unable to find a parking place and frustrated that you didn’t get what you wanted.

Yet with God, we have a permanent parking place called prayer, where we can trust His timing to provide us with everything He knows we need, and we can be thankful even when we don’t get it because we can depend on His love and goodness towards us.

When we pray, we get to see life from the highest perspective – God’s. That makes us confident. That brings us joy. That gives us a deep and abiding sense of security and value.

Continue steadfastly in prayer but be careful to do it with thanksgiving that comes from a heart of trust in God. Show God your shopping list, but be thankful that His list is better, and trust that His gifts will arrive right on time.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, November 22, 2018

Colossians 1:3-5  ³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, ⁵ because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

It is likely that for you, today will be one of the largest gatherings of family and friends during the year. I know it is for me and my family. We will hunt deer, eat turkey, and watch football. But mostly, we will rejoice to see how the family has grown and what God is doing to bring them all to maturity in their faith.

Traditionally in our family, we spend time at the meal thanking God for things he has done in our lives. This year, I am going to add a new twist to that familiar theme. It is based on Paul’s words to the Colossian church that are printed above. Instead of focusing on what God is doing for me, I am going to focus on what I see God doing in others.

Paul says there are three specific things that motivate his thanksgiving when he sees them in the lives of others:

1. Recognizable faith
2. Unconditional love
3. Motivational hope

I see all three in members of my family. I see grandparents, parents, and children who are unmistakably living out their faith in their jobs, their families, their schools, and their relationships with others. I always thank God for their faith.

I see family members who are learning the irreplaceable joy that comes from sacrificing their own desires for the sake of someone else’s plans. I see children giving up their time, their toys, and their treasures to serve their siblings and their Savior with what they have. I see parents who are sacrificing their recreational preferences for the sake of fulfilling their children’s recreational opportunities. I see apologies met with forgiveness. I see rejection replaced with reconciliation. I see sibling rivalry turn into sibling reinforcement. I see unconditional love, and I always thank God for it.

I see family members who are motivated to live their faith publicly and love one another personally by the hope they have in Christ’s return and His coming glory. I see sacrifices of this earth’s fading treasures for the sake of building treasures in heaven that will never fade away. I see time spent by parents teaching and training their children about eternal values because they know our only hope is in what will never pass away. For this I always give thanks.

I challenge you, on this Thanksgiving, to change the focus of your gratitude from being about self, to what you see in others. Let’s make this Thanksgiving extra special by building others up and encouraging them with what we see God doing in their lives.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

As we continue our study of thanksgiving, let’s do a quick review.

First, we are to have a consistent attitude of thanksgiving that is grounded in the truth of our salvation in Jesus Christ.

Second, we are to naturally let our attitude of thanks to be expressed in the activity of our lives. The expression of thanksgiving begins with verbal gratitude for what God has already done when He saved from our sin through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Today we look at another activity of thanksgiving: one that is motivated by what God is constantly doing in us every day.

Read this passage of Scripture from Colossians –

Colossians 2:6-7 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Here are four things God is doing in your life right now for which you can be actively thankful.

1. You are walking through life by faith in Jesus Christ.
2. You are rooted in Jesus Christ, firmly grounded in unbreakable relationship with Jesus Christ.
3. You are growing to be like Jesus Christ.
4. You are established in fellowship with Jesus Christ.

According to what the Apostle Paul wrote, the result of God’s ongoing work in our lives is this – we will abound in thanksgiving. The Greek word used by Paul that is translated “abounding” literally means to super-abound in quantity and quality.

Hmmm. I wonder if that’s ever been true of me? Has it ever been said of me that I super-abounded in thanks for anything? Have people had to tell me to stifle my positive attitude? Have I ever irritated anyone because I was so thankful during difficult circumstances? If they haven’t, then maybe there’s something wrong with my attitude.

If I truly believe that God is daily working in me to walk by faith not by sight, to become firmly grounded in my relationship with Jesus, to grow up to the measure of the stature of Jesus, and to be firmly established in fellowship with Jesus, then every circumstance of life is part of His work on my behalf. The result is that I am constantly thankful. I may even super-abound in thanksgiving.

It seems then that not abounding in thanksgiving is caused by a loss of confidence in God’s faithfulness to accomplish His work in our lives. But that may be too hard for us to admit, so we should just accept the reality that we won’t abound in thanksgiving because life is just too hard.

NOT!

With the same joy and thanksgiving we experienced when we received Christ Jesus as Lord, let us continue to abound in thanksgiving every day, because God is at work, and His work is good.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

A famous English Bible scholar named Matthew Henry was once attacked by thieves and robbed of his purse. He wrote these words in his diary: “Let me be thankful. First, I was never robbed before. Second, although they took my purse, they didn’t take my life. Third, although they took my all, it was not much. Fourth, let me be thankful because it was I who was robbed and not I who did the robbing.”

What a great attitude! My heart is convicted by the bad attitudes I have when things happen that are outside of my definition of good. My attitudes are not very thankful when my perception of my circumstances is based on my needs rather than God’s purpose. I need to keep reading yesterday’s devotional until my attitude begins to change.

When the attitude of our heart is thanksgiving, then giving thanks will become the activity of our life.  It is from the abundance of our heart that the mouth speaks. It is impossible to believe a person who claims to have a thankful heart yet does not express thanksgiving with their mouth.

I think that the root of our problem is that we focus far too much on circumstances we want changed, while taking for granted the biggest fix ever accomplished on our behalf.

Vance Havner said it this way – Our biggest problem in the church today is this vast majority of Sunday morning Christians who claim to have known the Master’s cure and who do not return to thank Him by presence, prayer, testimony and support of His church. In fact, the whole Christian life is [to be] one big “Thank You,” the living expression of our gratitude to God for His goodness. But we take Him for granted and what we take for granted we never take seriously.

If no other circumstance of our life was ever changed or fixed from this point forward, the following things are still true:

• In Christ, God has qualified us as His child and given us an eternal inheritance
• God has delivered us from darkness
• God has transferred us into the Kingdom of His Son Jesus
• Christ has redeemed us
• God has forgiven our sins
• Christ has strengthened us with all power by His Spirit, so we can patiently endure all things with joy

Sure, the circumstances of life sometimes stink, and they can be discouraging. But nothing – absolutely nothing – can separate us from the love of God when we are in Christ Jesus. That is the basis of a thankful attitude in the midst of a hurting world.

So, go ahead – let your thankful attitude spill out of your mouth in thanksgiving. Let your whole life be one big “THANK YOU!”

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, November 19, 2018

Colossians 3:15-17  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Author John Maxwell said, “The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.”

The Apostle Paul, writing to the people who made up the church at Colossae, describes thanksgiving as originating in our heart, resulting in thankful activity in our lives. In other words, the activity of thanksgiving flows out of the attitude of our heart.

Hearts that are ruled by Christ are at peace, and they produce thanksgiving even when all around us is unpeaceful. An attitude of thanksgiving will be present in a person who is ruled by Christ and allowing the word of Christ to dwell in them.

Attitudes are a choice. I know, sometimes circumstances don’t seem to give us a choice, but the choice is always there. We justify our attitudes by blaming the circumstances, when actually we need to blame our own choices.

Chuck Swindoll is one of my favorite preachers. His statement about attitude is powerful.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.” 

But, as we mentioned last Friday, our choice to have a thankful attitude is strongly influenced by the level of trust we have in God. Many of us allow our pride rather than God’s character and control to dictate our attitudes.

A young woman who won a coveted award smiled when her mother said, “I was praying you would get it.” “Well, thank you,” she replied, “but I earned this by my own hard work.”

Some people feel so sure of their self-sufficiency that they resent any implication that they owe God a word of thanks for the good things that come their way. And if we won’t be thankful for the good things, we certainly won’t be thankful for the things we think are bad.

Such an attitude could be justified only if a person were able to say, “I brought myself into the world, I endowed myself with all my talents and abilities, I raised myself, taught myself all I know, and control my present and future.”

Remember the quote from John Maxwell? “The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.”

Start your grown-up life today with an attitude of thanksgiving.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Friday, November 16, 2018

1 Chronicles 16:34 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Soon it will be Thanksgiving. It seems appropriate that we move from a study of what we can learn from life’s hardships to a focus on being thankful in all circumstances.

It is possible that you misread that last statement. It does not say to be thankful for all circumstances but be thankful in them. It is a clarification that is necessary for proper application.

I am not thankful for the consequences of evil in this world that affect my life. However, I am thankful during those times of suffering because my attitude is based on the goodness and steadfast love of the Lord. He never changes, so my attitude can always be thankful.

Yet we quickly turn to complaining when circumstances affect us negatively. The heart drifts toward complaint as if by gravitational pull. Complaint seems a reasonable response to a sequence of disappointing events. Generally, we don’t have to extend an invitation for complaint to show up. It arrives as an uninvited guest. Before we know it, complaint feels right because it is familiar.

Author Jeff Manion, in his book The Land Between, says that we must evict the spirit of complaint.  Here’s how he describes it:

We can discourage complaint’s residency in our lives by inviting another guest to move in with us. That new guest is trust. When we choose to trust in the face of deep disappointment, complaint has less space to maneuver. While attempting to unpack for an extended stay, it discovers that trust has taken all the drawers in the guest room and already occupies the empty seat at the table. Trust evicts complaint. Trust and complaint are incompatible roommates. One inevitably pushes the other one out.

Trust. Trust in the nature and character of God. Trust is the basis for thanksgiving.

Several years ago, God gave me a definition of trust using the word as an acrostic. It has become the basis for my understanding of the connection between trust and thanksgiving.

TRUST – Totally Relying Upon Sovereign Timing

Trust requires reliance upon God’s absolute control over all things, and that all things are working towards a glorious conclusion that will result in good for us (see Romans 8:28). When we have that level of trust, then we can also live through any hardship with an attitude of thanks.

Here’s another acrostic that reveals the connection between trust and thanks:

THANKS – Trusting His Attributes Not Knowing Specifics

I believe we have two problems that keep us from being thankful. We don’t trust anyone’s control except our own, and we don’t relax until we know all the details of the outcome. If we choose not to trust the Sovereign timing of God, then we obviously won’t be thankful unless we are in control and know the details of every circumstance. What a tragic and depressing way to live.

Here’s a simple story that helps me to understand that I can trust God with the outcome even when current circumstances seem counter-productive.

A ship was wrecked, and the only survivor washed up on a small uninhabited island. He was exhausted. He cried out to God to save him. Every day he scanned the horizon, searching for help. Finally, he managed to build a rough hut and put his few articles in that hut.

One day, coming home from hunting for food, he was stung with grief to see his little hut in flames and a cloud of smoke. The worst had happened. But later that day, a ship came in and rescued him.

He asked the crew, “How did you know I was here?” They replied, “We saw your smoke signal.”

Maybe the difficulty you have now is a smoke signal that will lead to great blessing. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, November 15, 2018

2 Corinthians 12:6 – 10 (NLT) ⁶I have plenty to boast about and would be no fool in doing it, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it. I don’t want anyone to think more highly of me than what they can actually see in my life and my message,  ⁷even though I have received wonderful revelations from God. But to keep me from getting puffed up, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from getting proud. ⁸Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.  ⁹Each time he said, “My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me.  ¹⁰Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

For the third time in his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul addresses the subject of hardships. In his first reference to trials and trouble (2 Cor. 1:8-9) we learned that hardship is designed by God to teach us to trust Him. In his second reference to hardships we learned that they are the measuring stick of our true Christ-like character. Now, Paul teaches us that hardships are the means by which God controls our pride and keeps us humble.

In a moment of great transparency Paul reveals to us that he struggled with pride. Paul had been granted a privilege that no other person has experienced since the ascension of Jesus into glory. He saw the risen Lord in person, and for three years Jesus personally taught him his theology. (See Galatians 1) Earlier in this chapter Paul said, Let me tell about the visions and revelations I received from the Lord. ²I was caught up into the third heaven fourteen years ago. ³Whether my body was there or just my spirit, I don’t know; only God knows. ⁴But I do know that I was caught up into paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be told. ⁵That experience is something worth boasting about.

Paul had every reason to boast about his spiritual experiences and to use them as a validation of his authority over people. Paul also knew that his pride could cause him to displace God as the focus of His ministry and draw all of the attention to Himself. So, he adds a qualifier at the end of his statement – but I am not going to do it. I am going to boast only about my weaknesses. 

God also knew that Paul would struggle with pride, as we all do, so He gave Satan permission to torment Paul with a thorn in the flesh. We are not told what it was, and that’s a good thing. If we knew what the specific thorn was, then we might be tempted to believe that because we don’t have it we are not proud and don’t need to be humbled.

The Holy Spirit is teaching us a principle – hardships are designed by God to keep us from becoming proud. Hardships reveal our weaknesses. Hardships reveal our inabilities to control life and its circumstances. Hardships reveal our need for companionship and comfort. Hardships allow the power of God to be fully expressed in us, because we are forced to admit that our power is useless to solve the problem.

According to Paul, there are two ways to live each day. First, we can live according to our own strengths and experiences, using our knowledge to determine the context and outcome of each event. In this choice, hardships are the opportunities provided to us to prove ourselves and to gain confidence in who we are.

Or, second, we can live humbly before God, recognizing that every hardship is an opportunity for God to prove Himself to us and for our faith in Him to grow.

Consider the two alternatives carefully. Paul says that the second option makes him the strongest. The rules of logic say this – if we are strongest when we admit we are weak, then we must be weakest when we think we are strong. If we try to accentuate our strengths and handle our hardships in our own abilities, we will be proven weak. But, if we admit our weaknesses, then the power of God is able to work through us and we will experience His strength.

It all boils down to what our motives are – do we want recognition or do we want the focus to be on God. Remember what Paul said – I don’t want anyone to think more highly of me than what they can actually see in my life and my message. How we let God handle our hardships becomes the evidence of our faith.

Our present hardships, whether temporary or permanent thorns, are a gift from God to keep His power fully working in our lives by reminding us of how weak we really are. Stop fighting it. Stop trying to fix it. God is using our weakness to reveal His power.

Let your faith and trust in God grow by letting go. His outcomes are perfect for His glory and your good. Trust His grace to be sufficient for you today and every day.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

It’s a little longer Scripture passage today, but it’s important. Please read the whole passage. I’ve used the New Living Translation for easy reading without compromising truth.

2 Corinthians 6:3 – 10 ³We try to live in such a way that no one will be hindered from finding the Lord by the way we act, and so no one can find fault with our ministry.  ⁴In everything we do we try to show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.  ⁵We have been beaten, been put in jail, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food.  ⁶We have proved ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, our sincere love, and the power of the Holy Spirit.  ⁷We have faithfully preached the truth. God’s power has been working in us. We have righteousness as our weapon, both to attack and to defend ourselves.  ⁸We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors.  ⁹We are well known, but we are treated as unknown. We live close to death, but here we are, still alive. We have been beaten within an inch of our lives.  ¹⁰Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.

A question was asked on one of our Christian radio stations recently. If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?  Consider that question in the context of today’s Scripture passage.

Paul lists the significant evidence in his own life that convinced the world that he was a true minister of God. His list gives us a comparative standard of our own spiritual integrity as we live for Jesus in a lost world. Let each point encourage you where it can and convict you where it must.

1. Patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind, including beatings, jail, angry mobs, being over worked to exhaustion, enduring sleepless nights, and going without food. 
2. Prove yourselves by:
   •  your purity,
   • your understanding,
   • your patience,
   • your kindness,
   • your sincere love,
   • and the power of the Holy Spirit. 
3. Faithfully preach the truth. Be a consistent witness for Jesus Christ.
4. God’s power has been working in us. Can the people of the world see the power of God in how we live, or do they just see a powerful person?
5. We have righteousness as our weapon. Knowing what is right and then doing what is right gives us the strength to both defend ourselves and to mount an attack against the evil of our day.
6. We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are not people pleasers but instead we honor God by serving Him and serving people no matter what they think or say about us.
7. We are honest, but they call us impostors. We are well known, but we are treated as unknown. We do not compromise for the sake of recognition.
8. We live close to death, but here we are, still alive. We have been beaten within an inch of our lives. The body may be bruised, but our spirit cannot be broken. We are alive from the inside out.
9. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We may be emotionally drained, but the joy of the Lord is our strength.
10. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything. The treasures of heaven outweigh the treasures of earth, and we are content.

Simply stated, the hardships of life are to become the evidence of our faith and trust in God.

So how do you measure up?

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

2 Corinthians 1:8 – 9 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  ⁹Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

Several years ago, a very good friend of mine went through a terrible hardship in his family. His daughter was diagnosed with cancer at age 18. It was a roller coaster ride of emotions that lasted for several years. Numerous surgeries were performed, each one giving them hope that it would be the last, and then their hopes would be dashed by more complications. They literally felt the sentence of death in their hearts. They knew what it was to be at the end of their rope. They translated Paul’s phrase “we despaired even of life” into a two-word statement – “this sucks.”  Please forgive the crudeness of how that sounds, but it’s true. Sometimes life hurts so bad that we can only look at it in despair. We are under such pressure that it is beyond our ability to endure, and certainly beyond our capacity to resolve.

But this family did not stay in that condition. They relied on the grace and comfort of God. They learned that in the experience of death, even if only in their minds, there is the experience of the resurrection power of God who raises the dead. The same God who raised Jesus from a death caused by the compounded effect of all mankind’s sin can raise us from the individual sentence of death we are experiencing.

Human logic dictates this truth. If it has been proven that a man can lift 250 pounds over his head, then it is entirely logical to assume that he can lift one pound over his head. Since God was able to raise Jesus from the dead, and the death of Jesus was caused by the total weight of all mankind’s sin, then it is logical to believe that God can easily raise one sinner from the dead.

That’s exactly what my friend’s family believed. Against all human logic and hopelessness, they trusted God to be their strength and courage to endure the hardship. Today they are the living examples of hardship-constructed character. The daughter is now married to a wonderful man of God who stood by her during all the years of her battle with cancer. My friend and his wife have learned what it means to trust God every day, and to use every hardship as an opportunity to rely on the God who raises the dead.

Their lives and attitudes are an illustration of today’s truth – hardship produces trust in God. Smooth sailing results in self-trust. Rough waters cause us to turn to the Master and let Him handle the storm.

Whatever you are going through right now, stop trying to control it. Stop trying to fix it. Stop trying to change it. Just look at it, and in whatever words are appropriate for you, tell God that you “despair even of life.”  Then trust Him completely to handle the situation and bring about an outcome that honors His name. Then you will be able to say with Paul, “He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.” (2 Cor. 1:10)

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotional

Monday, November 12, 2018

Hebrews 12:4 – 8  In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

The subject of encouragement we have been studying in these devotionals is essential if we are going to endure the hardships we all experience in life. The writer of Hebrews expresses the connection between encouragement and endurance when He writes about both in today’s Scripture passage. Make sure you have read it.

If the average person who calls himself a Christian was asked how he knows he is a son of God, he would probably not come up with the answer described in today’s Bible verses. Granted, it is not the only answer, but it is a significant one. In addition to the more common responses like “I obey God’s commands” (1 John 5:2), “I love the brothers and sisters in Christ” (1 John 3:10), and “I hate sin” (1 John 5:18), we should also be able to say that we know we are a child of God because He disciplines us. It may not be the first response we think of, but it is significant because the Bible has encouragement connected with it.

Hardship is a universal fact of life. Everyone suffers in one way or another – sometimes in more than one way at the same time. How are we supposed to be encouraged when we are so deeply affected by suffering?

There are two critical principles we must understand. First, God addresses us with words of encouragement as His children. And second, we must consider the possibility that some of our suffering is disciplinary in nature.

There are basically two types of suffering: that which is caused by the consequences of our own sin; and that which is caused by our stand against sin.

The Christian who sins is disciplined by God because God loves him as a son, and wants his behavior to change. This is corrective discipline. The Christian who struggles against sin and then suffers for it is also being disciplined. It is not corrective discipline but rather constructive discipline. His character is being constructed to be the character of Christ.

Both types of discipline are for our good, and it is good for us to submit to both of them. Later in this passage in Hebrews we read this: God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Consider suffering in the context of the maturing process that should occur in all Christian’s lives. As a father and a grandfather, I would not be satisfied if my children and their children stayed at the level of needing corrective discipline. As they grow and mature, there should be less correction and more construction of character. A much higher level of intimacy is achieved between parent and child when construction of character is being accomplished.

That is to be the model for our Christian walk as well. As we grow in our faith, there should be less sin to struggle with and more strength to struggle against sin. Then we will experience the depth of intimacy with Christ that He said is possible. We will understand the fullness and abundance of life that He promised.

Do not be satisfied with sin. Do not consider it a necessary reality of human existence. You do not have to live with sin and its consequences. You can grow up into a Christian who struggles against sin rather than with sin. You will still have to endure hardships, but they will not be riddled with guilt and shame.

Sinful choices will bring painful consequences and shameful experiences.

Sacred choices may result in painful consequences which the world intends to shame us. But we have One who has given us a model to follow. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (emphasis mine).

Be encouraged. God speaks words of encouragement to you as His child. He loves you and wants you to correct what’s wrong and grow in the character of His Son. If you are sinning and suffering for it, God is disciplining you because you are His child so that you can grow up. If you are struggling against sin and suffering for it, God is disciplining you as His son to make you just like His Son. Do not grow weary of the discipline. Do not lose heart. You are being trained to share in the holiness of God. That’s good!

Pastor John