Exercised by Chastening

Heb 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Heb 12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
Heb 12:13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
Heb 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Heb 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled


Exercised by chastening.


Our biggest hope as parents is that our children learn from their mistakes and sometimes even learn from the mistakes we've made so they don't have to go through the pain that making mistakes can bring. We need to learn from any chastening the Lord sends our way. If we don't learn then we will reap the rewards of not taking the lessons given to us by God. Being chastened by God isn't pleasant, it's a horrible experience, an experience that rips at our hearts and souls sending us into many a tailspin. The chastening is grievous and we can relate to that because we know what it feels like to be chastened by our parents or caregivers as we do wrong and need the chastening. Can you think of at least one incident of chastening in your life that you learned from? Sometimes we have a moment when we do something and we know in that moment of reckoning we vow to never do that thing again so that we don't have to experience the pain of being chastened. God wants us to learn from our mistakes. God wants to chasten us so that we learn and from that learning we will experience the peace of Christ's righteousness. We HAVE to open our hearts to God's chastening. Our first instinct is to run, to hide, to bury the pain, to do anything to get the horrible pain of chastening out of our lives. However sometimes we embrace the chastening to readily letting ourselves wallow in the pain of the chastening without learning from it. We get caught up in the wallowing and live our lives right there in the despair and pain without being exercised by it at all. We cry out why me?! And we keep crying that out daily. Christ cried out for God to take the cup from Him, but did so by saying not His own will be done, but God's. Our will isn't to suffer, but sometimes the suffering is for a reason beyond our comprehension and we have to let go and let God work His will in us and by His grace and guidance pray that we can be exercised by the chastening we suffer.


We have to lift up our hands when all they want to do is hang low and wallow. We have to take our feeble knees and lift them up high when all we want to do is fall down upon them and yes...wallow in our misery. We have to make a straight path for our feet and that path is Christ's path and keep on that path so that we will be healed. If we don't keep on God's path our entire lives will be lame, useless, the wallowing will consume us fully.


We must have peace with ALL men.
We must have holiness with ALL men.


We have to look and not just glance but really look hard for Christ in our lives so that we don't fail of the grace of God.
We have to make sure NO bitterness fills us and it will try, it will try very hard to consume us. Bitterness is an enemy of God it overshadows hope, it kills faith. We can't let bitterness take over our lives and it will try very hard to do so. Depression is a form of hopelessness and can lead to bitterness, we have to lift up our hands and knees, we have to make our paths straight, we have to follow peace and holiness with all others and we will see God because it's through God this is possible.


By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior may we cling to Christ even when we don't understand any of what is going on in our lives, even when the horrors of live assail us. By the Holy Spirit may we live grasping hold of Christ's righteousness now and forever.


Amen.