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Glory Seed Devotional’s, 2017: Anticipating and Experiencing Jehovah-Jireh...
God, the Divine Disciplinarian...
Shalom!
“You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands. May all who fear you find in me a cause for joy, for I have put my hope in your word. I know, O Lord, that your regulations are fair; you disciplined me because I needed it. Now let your unfailing love comfort me, just as you promised me, your servant. Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live, for your instructions are my delight.” (Psalm 119:73–77, NLT)
As anyone who follows my Blog knows I have a number of “from head to toe” health issues and there are times when a little voice (usually my own, but not all the time) tells they are the result of God disciplining me because my sins. However, in spite of what the voice or voices tell me I don’t believe God disciplines us by by afflicting us with serious health issues. I do believe God allows those things to afflict us as a way of getting us to the point where we will depend upon him totally. How then does God discipline us? The Psalmist sheds light on the answer. “Do not turn your back on me. Do not reject your servant in anger. You have always been my helper. Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me, O God of my salvation!” (Psalm 27:9, NLT)I believe God abandons us not to the extent we are totally alone but just far enough to convince us we’ll not make it on our own.
I remember one time while shopping I noticed a mother shadowing her young son, following just far enough away to go unnoticed yet close enough so no harm would come to him. Suddenly the young boy realized he was lost panicked and began crying his mother took off like a rocket and picked him up and hugged him. I have no way of knowing whether or not the young boy never wandered off on his own again or not but I do know when I get the idea I don’t need God I remind myself of a life changing, “If I am going to make it LORD it is only because of You,” prayer uttered from a hospital bed in March of 1981. The Holy Spirit has etched that experience in my memory I can close my eyes and relive the pain and the hopeless of feeling my life slowly draining away.
If you need to know why God is so passionate about disciplining us when we need it the last three verses of today’s scripture spell it out for us. “I know, O Lord, that your regulations are fair; you disciplined me because I needed it. Now let your unfailing love comfort me, just as you promised me, your servant. Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live, for your instructions are my delight.” (Psalm 119:75–77, NLT)
“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”” (Matthew 11:28–30, NLT, emphasis mine)I no longer see it that way instead in my imagination I can hear Jesus STERNLY TELLING us, “Come to me!” And if we don’t there will be no rest for our souls and life will weight heavily on us eventually breaking down (that from the voice of experience).
Grace and PEACE,
Gary
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“Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.”
**Hebrews 4:16, NLT
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