Heb. 12:11

11 Now [de] no [pas] [ou] chastening [paideia] for [pros] [men] the present [pareimi] seemeth [dokeo] to be [einai] joyous [chara], but [alla] grievous [lupe]: nevertheless [de] afterward [husteron] it yieldeth [apodidomi] the peaceable [eirenikos] fruit [karpos] of righteousness [dikaiosune] unto them which are exercised [gumnazo] thereby [dia] [autos]. KJV-Interlinear

11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. NASB

Reach into the cookie jar and get your knuckles smacked. Discipline is not intended to be pleasant, but it is intended to get your attention such that you will not pursue your present course, whatever course that might be. So that you ll steer your thoughts or actions back onto a better course for your life.

Throughout one s life, for some people anyway, they just keep on doing the same things over and over again. And, they end up getting hammered over and over again because they just don t seem to get it.

And so it is in the spiritual life. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for people in life, is their inability to formulate a positive relationship with God through Bible doctrine. Matching up the teaching that comes from the Bible with our everyday reality seems to be difficult for most people.

And so like medicine, Gods discipline has to be administered in order to correct the spiritual deficiency in one s life. Oftentimes when we get sick or injured we have to take medicine, or we have to go to the hospital and have surgery, and neither of these are generally pleasant experiences. But when we look forward to the end result, then we re more than happy to undergo the necessary treatment in order to get better.

Discipline in life, that is, discipline from God, should be viewed in the same manner.

Most everything that we face in life is like facing the unknown. We don t know from one minute to the next what is going to happen in our life. We don t know what s going to happen later today, we don t know what s going to happen to us tonight, we don t know what s going to happen to us tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or at any time in the future.

We enter life with certain expectations, with general ideas as to what we want out of life, but we can t be certain we will get what we want. We go to school for an education, we get a job for training and income, we invest expecting to make a profit, we make plans so that we will have a better life for our self in this life. But, none of these things are guaranteed. Most likely you have had plans and expectations in life that simply have not worked out as you expected.

The spiritual life is vastly different from the temporal life. In our temporal life we can only rely on our natural abilities, our intelligence, and so forth, and perhaps a little luck that the world throws our way. In our spiritual life we have the foreknowledge and power of God on our side.

God is perfect therefore His plan for our life is perfect. God possesses foreknowledge therefore He knows all the details of our life even before they occur. God knows all the circumstances of our life even before they occur. God is in a position to know everything that we will ever need at any point in our life, throughout our entire lifetime.

It only stands to reason that it is far better to rely on Gods wisdom, rather than excluding God and relying solely on our own wisdom.

By relying on God, we can then use His discipline in our life as a guide in choosing our course, through life. We have Bible doctrine which teaches us the fundamental truths of life. We have our application of Bible doctrine to our daily life which helps us learn through trial and error, in some cases. And we have Gods discipline which serves as a course corrector for our life.

Therefore, we should embrace whatever suffering and difficulties we might face in life. Understanding fully that when we re out of fellowship, and sooner or later we certainly should be aware of when we re out of fellowship, because we are thinking things or doing things that we should not, and therefore by being continually out of fellowship we can expect to get hammered.

However, when we live our lives in fellowship with God, then we should know and understand that any suffering that comes along is intended for testing our faith, and reinforcing and accelerating the speed of our spiritual growth.

So, looking to God gives you a win, win outcome no matter what happens to you in life. You win because you re growing up spiritually, and continued spiritual growth to the point of spiritual maturity will guarantee you both victory in this life and especially in the next. You have a counselor, the best one possible, overseeing every aspect of your life, and guiding you through doctrine and discipline, onto the best possible course for your life, resulting in the best possible outcome for your life. An outcome which, on your own, you could never achieve.

Now is the time to post a prayer.