Heavenly Discipline Hurts

I was heavily chastised by God yesterday. I want to share with you what I was disciplined about although I'm embarrassed to tell you. Some of you know my youngest daughter has no relationship with her dad (we will refer to him as B). She was an infant the last time he saw her. He and I have recently been in communication with each other and working towards a possible reunion between them. Some events transpired last week that were not connected as being related until yesterday.

Last Thursday a friend of mine was on her way to my house and texted me she was running late because there was an accident and she was in traffic. It occurred on a road not far from my house. My friend even posted a picture on Facebook asking for prayers for those involved because it looked to be serious. Her two daughters (one of which is my daughters best friend) were in the car with her and they all prayed for those involved. Later Thursday night I received a text from another friend letting me know B was riding his bicycle and was hit by a motorcycle and had sustained a pretty bad head injury. The whole top of his head had been stapled back together. For a fleeting moment the thought crossed my mind that maybe my friend had seen it happen, but due to the location I dismissed the idea because it did not seem like somewhere B would be traveling.

While talking to B yesterday he gave me more details about what happened. I talked to my friend and asked her exactly where the accident was located she had witnessed. As you are probably guessing by this point, they were indeed one and the same. My best friend just "happened" to be there praying for my daughter's estranged father as he was being loaded into an ambulance with a serious head injury. Not only that, but she even posted to Facebook about it asking others to pray. When I consider what the odds must be of that exact scenario happening, I have to believe it was nothing short of being a divinely orchestrated appointment.

Now to move on to why God "spanked" me. In the course of my conversation with B yesterday I jokingly asked if he was ready to start going to church in light of his "near death" experience. He responded that he had never been against the idea and also asked if he could go to church with me. My immediate response was of course he could because I would never turn anyone away that wanted to go to church and learn more about God. And then something happened that caught me off guard. I started thinking about how I would feel if he was serious and really did want to go to church with us. Everything in me screamed NO WAY! And this is when I heard God say ....' HOW DARE YOU?!?!?!?"

Ouch.

Ouch.

Ouch.

In what could be the longest conversation I've ever had with God (actually it was more Him talking and me hanging my head), He proceeded to ask how I could be so bold as to proclaim all He had done for me, and yet want to withhold that from someone else. Did I believe He could change me from who I used to be and yet not be big enough to help change B? Did my daughter and her siblings not also deserve an earthly father who knows God and was living for Him? Did I love the powerful, life changing Word of God I was receiving at my church, but not enough to want to share that Word? Have I claimed to pray for B and yet if he was willing to take a step towards change, would I reject that attempt?

To be real with you, there are some people that have hurt us so bad that despite what we say with our lips, our hearts want them to pay in some way for the hurt and damage they have caused. We might forgive them for what they have done, yet there is a part of us that still believes they "get what they deserve" for their choices in life. The beauty of God's grace is NONE of us getting what we deserve. What if because of my friend's prayers, B is alive today? What if this is his second chance to make things right? How could I be so selfish as to not want to do everything I possibly can to help facilitate him coming to know Jesus?

My point of saying all this is two-fold. First, when we truly belong to God, He WILL discipline us. Just as when our children are disobedient or do something that could harm them or others, we are to discipline and correct them, so will God do this to us.

"and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,“ My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;  For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons." Hebrews 12:5-8

Secondly, is there someone in your life that you are still holding on to the feelings of hoping they get their just rewards? Have you been withholding true grace for someone because of the pain they have inflicted on you? If you are a believer and claim to know Jesus and believe it is because of His grace to YOU that you are saved, then I would admonish you with the same words God spoke to me yesterday... HOW DARE YOU?