Thread: "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11).
"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11).
Posted : 31 Aug, 2011 03:30 PM
The very wisdom displayed in this method of instruction�the sanctified discipline of the covenant�proves that God is its Author.
Had God left the believer to form his own school, adopt his own plan of instruction, choose his own discipline, and even select his own teacher, how different it would have been from God's plan!
We would never have conceived the idea of such a mode of instruction, so unlikely�according to our poor wisdom�to secure the end in view. We would have thought that the smooth path would more quickly conduct us into the glories of the kingdom of grace. We would have thought that the sunny path would more fully develop the wisdom, the love, the tenderness, the sympathy of our blessed Lord. We would have thought that the joyous path would more decidedly tend to our weanedness from the world, our crucifixion of sin, and our spiritual and unreserved devotedness to his service.
But "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa. 55:8�9).
Nor is the believer fully convinced of the wisdom of God's method of procedure until he has been brought, in a measure, through the discipline�until the rod has been removed, the angry waves have subsided, and the tempest cloud has passed away. Then, reviewing the chastisement, minutely examining its nature and its causes�the steps that led to it, the chain of providences in which it formed a most important link�and most of all, surveying the rich covenant blessings it brought with it�the weanedness from the world, the gentleness, the meekness, the patience, the spirituality, the prayerfulness, the love, the joy�he is led to exclaim, "I now see the infinite wisdom and tender mercy of my Father in this affliction. While in the furnace I did not see it. The rising of inbred corruption, unbelief, and hard thoughts of God darkened my view. They veiled from the eye of my faith the reason of the discipline. But now I see why my covenant God and Father has dealt this way with me. I see the wisdom and adore the love of his merciful procedure."
Other discipline may hurt, but not humble, the pride of the heart. It may wound, but not crucify it. Affliction, sanctified by the Spirit of God, lays the soul in the dust and gives it low thoughts of itself. Gifts, attainments, successful labors, the applause of men, all conspire to ruin a child of God. And, except for the prompt and often severe discipline of an ever-watchful, ever-faithful God, they would accomplish their end. But he sends the affliction�the needed cross, the required medicine�and in this way he brings out "the peaceful fruit of righteousness;" the most beautiful and precious of which is a humble, lowly view of self.
