Love Through Discipline

“Love Through Discipline”

By Zach Wood

Hebrews 12:11, “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.”

We all know that discipline makes us stronger and teaches us to learn to do what is right.  However, none of us enjoys going through discipline.  Every one of us has had different experiences in our childhood and adolescent years with discipline.  We have all been raised in different ways and have had various experiences with this.  When we become parents, we often find it hard to deal with discipline and exactly what we should do in certain situations.  We are constantly learning as parents.

God needs to discipline us just as we discipline our children.  He loves us and knows exactly what we need to grow and become stronger as His children.  As parents, we don’t enjoy giving discipline, especially when we get angry with them.  Every parent I know has had terrible moments when they “blow up” at their children.  None of us are perfect at parenting, but we learn and we grow.  We continue to try to discipline the best we can and show our kids we love them no matter what. 

I am always amazed, no matter how many times I mess up getting frustrated with my girls, that they keep coming to tell me how much they want to be with me and how they love me.  Man, talk about melting daddy’s heart!  They do come to understand that they need to learn and re-learn.  For us as well, with God’s discipline, we have to learn and re-learn, just as our kids do. God loves us and wants the best for us, and so He has to discipline us.  He does this because He loves us and knows it will make us stronger.

The pain from discipline will make us stronger as we continue to live our lives for Him.  

Give Him Praise

“Give Him Praise”

By Zach Wood

Psalm 100- “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.  Know that the Lord is God.  It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

If you take time to read through some of the Psalms, you will quickly see praises being lifted up to our Almighty God. The Psalms are full of these passages and they are very uplifting.  Sometimes, we just need to read these passages and be reminded of how great and awesome God really is and His mighty power. 

Whether we are having a good day or a bad day, it is good for us to bring praise to Him whatever the circumstances.  It’s easier when we are having good days and harder when the bad days come.  We tend to focus on the negative and our frustration often times.  But if we remain strong in the Lord and look past those things to His power and comfort, we can still come before Him with praise and grow through our hard times. 

My favorite part of this passage is the last verse where we see that God’s love endures forever and that His faithfulness is never-ending.  That is comfort and an amazing feeling.  It’s so inspirational, even in the midst of trying times, when I can just be by myself and lift up praises to Him and focus on Him.  I want to always be mindful of how awesome He is and all that He has done and continues to do for me.

Have you come before Him with joyful songs in your heart and in complete praise?  He truly deserves our adoration and praise. 

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever!