Read 2 Samuel 12; Hebrews 12:1-11
Life can be messy. Life can be difficult and circumstances can come that are less than pleasant. Sometimes these situations are a direct result of the choices we have made to sin and rebel against God. Though God is gracious and compassionate and loving, the consequences of our actions are still ever present. God never promises to remove the consequences, though sometimes He graciously may. When He does and when He doesn’t is completely up to Him.
This can be easily illustrated by the following example. Imagine I jumped off the Sydney Harbour Bridge because I was angry at God! (Why I would do that is beyond me, or the length of today’s reading!!!) But as I am falling, I pray to God for forgiveness for the stupidity of this action. God promises to forgive me and will. But the consequences of my actions will still play out. More than likely
I will still hit the bottom! If, for example, in stealing something I can expect the consequences to play out. These consequences will be used by God to teach me, guide me and help me. If I drink too much and drive, I can expect to lose my license.
When we are in these tough times, we need to see God as disciplining us and training us so that we have a harvest of righteousness, rather than a harvest of sinfulness. God is growing us and maturing us in the faith. Often this hurts. Rather than rage against the situation we need to submit ourselves to the Lord and be confident that He knows best. We need to trust God and patiently endure. Even though we are in a time of discipline (we should see all hardship as discipline) we should not doubt God’s love for us. Rather, we should be encouraged all the more because God is treating us as sons and is producing a harvest of righteousness within us.
Prayer:-
à Praise God for the short term team from Australia going into 2 public schools in Poland.
à For Chris & Judy Ayer’s children, for safety and personal spiritual growth.
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