The writer of Hebrew exhorts us:
My daughters, do not regard lightly the chastisement of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. It is for chastening that you have to endure. God is treating you as daughters. For what daughter is there whom her father does not chastise? If you are left without chastisement, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not daughters. (Hebrews 12:5, 7, 8, emphasis added)
Never allow the enemy to make you think that God’s correction is His rejection.
The devil deceived Eve into thinking God was holding something back from her so he could lead her into the snare of disobedience. As a result of her disobedience, she was removed from the Garden of Eden and the presence of God (see Genesis 3). Even though the Lord loved Eve, He disciplined her when she disobeyed Him. When we disobey God and He has to discipline us, it’s easy to fall into the trap of blaming Him for the consequences that we ourselves set in motion.
The Lord wants us to learn to obey His first instructions.
When the Lord is training us for greater things, He corrects us when we miss the mark. He disciplines us when we continue to disobey His instruction. When we miss the mark, He wants us to allow Him to correct us right away. It’s better to learn to obey quickly than to endure a long season of chastisement and what can become an open rebuke by Him because of disobedience. Even tough God disciplines us, He gives us many warnings and many chances to make the corrections He asks of us because He wants us to understand not only the consequences of disobedience but the blessings of obedience.
Submitting to God’s discipline makes everything work for your good.
Eve’s disobedience created consequences that affected her children and ultimately the whole human race, but the Lord had a plan for her deliverance and ours. Her Seed, Jesus Christ, would crush Satan’s head under His feet. When Cain killed Abel, it was due in part to being born into the sin nature of his parents that had been passed down through their disobedience, but the Lord did not hold Eve’s sin against her. He gave her another son, Seth, whose name means “substitute” in place of Abel, whom Cain killed (Genesis 4:25).
Because Eve submitted to God during the time of chastisement, He was able to make what the enemy meant to destroy—her life and ours—work for her good and ours by giving her another son as substitute for the one whom sin and death had claimed, and sending His Son Jesus as a substitute for us who sin and death had also claimed.
Beloved, the Lord can and will make all things work together for your good too if you are willing to endure His chastisement and learn to obey Him.
A few questions for you:
Have you every experienced the Lord’s discipline? If so, who did affect you? what did you learn? What advice would you offer women experiencing God’s discipline?
You can read more about the chastisement and the discipline of the Lord in my book: A Call to God’s Daughters to Step Into His L.A.B.
Leave a Reply