“No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.  - Harry Emerson Fosdick

Today’s Scripture: Proverbs 3:11-12

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline

or be weary of his reproof,

for the Lord reproves him whom he loves,

as a father the son in whom he delights.  (ESV)

But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;

don’t sulk under his loving correction.

It’s the child he loves that God corrects;

a father’s delight is behind all this.   (MSG)

Other verses mentioned in the episode:

And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:

My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly

or lose heart when you are reproved by him,

for the Lord disciplines the one he loves

and punishes every son he receives. (Hebrews 12:5-6)

“As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline.” (Revelation 3:19a)

See how happy is the person whom God corrects;

so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty. (Job 5:17)

Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead. (Hebrews 12:7-13)

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. says, “when we suffer, it isn’t God angrily taking from us, it is God lovingly reinvesting in us.”

CR Wood makes this conclusion about these verses “The pain of suffering sometimes keeps us from seeing what God is doing in our lives. Sometimes He melts us in the furnace so He can stamp us with His own image. He wants us to partake of His holiness so we can partake of His happiness. If we compare our chastening with our sin, is it not a marvel that it is not heavier?”

Ortlund says, “Our wise pathway through suffering is to accept it and wait while God fulfills his purpose. If you are suffering right now, you are probably being tempted in two opposite ways. Both are here in verse 11--either to despise the Lord’s discipline, which is the active response of anger, or to be weary of his reproof, which is the passive response of despair. What is your only path forward? ‘Be trained by it’”

If you want a place to see and answer the questions I ask in the episode and to keep track of the discoveries you make as we study Proverbs, we include a set of free journal pages for this devotional series in each of our Sunday emails

Free journal pages to follow the study: www.getwisdom.link/email