“Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. Job 5:17 (NIV)
Correction is not punishment. God does not punish us, He corrects us. When we do something wrong and there are negative painful consequences it’s not God who has punished us. Many believe that it’s God who punishes people for their sins. But the truth is sin itself punishes its victims for the wages that sin pays for serving it is death. Romans 6:23.
God is our loving Father who has the best for us and is very passionate about us walking and living in His best for us.
Proverbs 3:11-12 (NLT) My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.
Our Heavenly Father constantly and consistently corrects and disciplines us to get us in the direction of His desired destination for our lives. He disciplines us for our own good so we may live and enjoy the very full, complete, satisfied life that He Himself lives.
Hebrews 12:10-11 (AMPC) 10 For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness.
11 For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness—in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].
Correction or discipline involves letting go of certain things which you were so attached to that separating from those things is like a part of you is being cut off and this is indeed painful. Now God does not correct, discipline, or train us with evil like sickness, poverty, accidents, natural disasters like earthquakes and droughts. These are the works of the devil and the result of sin. God corrects, disciplines, teaches, instructs, trains changes and transforms us, with His Word.
2 Timothy 3:16-17(NIV) All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
It’s not circumstances but the Word of God that corrects us. Circumstances only provide the classroom from where the Word trains us. For example, we learn to trust God not just because we are going through difficult situations. There are so many people who are suffering but who don’t trust in God, they don’t even believe in Him much less believe that there’s a God. But it’s after the Word of God comes to us and corrects our mindset that there’s a God right where we are, concerned about us and our concerns and as we yield to this Word we gradually learn to lean on Him and let Him help us.
God’s Word reboots us to our original factory settings of sharing in and enjoying His very own untroubled, perfect, glorious Life. Embrace the word Today.