God's loving discipline

By Moderator -
Q: A preacher said: " God disciplines those He loves, in making us weak He loves us, if he causes us to be ill, He is loving us, even if He takes our life, he is loving us".  Can you explain this, because it sounds like a relationship a person should flee from to get help. (?)


A: Are you assuming God is abusing His people? Far from it. God is our loving Heavenly Father, our Creator and Savior, our sustainer, guide and our life. If your father doesnt discipline you to lovingly correct you... then he is not a good father. I am sure your parents corrected you a million times from birth to age 20. Likely still advise you for helpful guidance & correction in your 40s as well. 

The main reason people do not grasp this issue on a spiritual level regarding the good and perfect God, is that they do not read the Bible, and their church lacks "church discipline", so the concept is foreign.  


God always has the best in mind for His children, the called out ones (the born again, also called saints, redeemed, saved, set aside ones, sealed ones, glorious ones, priests, ambassadors, children of God, those of eternal life, etc). 

God has given us countless examples in Scripture of how he deals with those who are his. He does it to correct us and put us back on the right path. He uses Scripture (which is useful for correction ((vs), and our conscience to convict (vs) and correct us(vs). He uses situations around us to remind us and bring us to the Word and remind us to live rightly. He uses others examples around us to do the same. 

He brings close believers along side us to do the same. And He even has installed a escalation system built into the local church congregation to help correct believers living in sin. And that may follow after God's discipline or happen before God escalates it to the church. So, it is better to deal with sin issues by keeping short accounts and resolving them, repenting, restoring fellowsip with God, so your relationship is repaired, God hears your prayers, you can continue being useful and blessed, and grow in holiness. Its better to keep short sin accounts than it to escalate to a Christian friend knowing and calling you out on it to lovingly correct. Than it to escalate to your close church brethren, and if unresolved, escalates to the next in line, and unresolved leads to the elders hearing, counseling, admonishing, exhorting, calling you to repentance, and if still unresolved, escalates to the preacher, who upon hearing announces it to the church to call out your sin which gathers the congregation to call you to repentence in love. And if still unresolved, leads the leadership to expell you from the church. Until you repent, come back and are restored. If ever [if you remain unrepentant]. 

But during this God can discipline you in that things around you going wrong, losing things, house, friends, jobs, respect of those you cared about, you can get depression, anxiety, literal illness, come down with some illness or disease, and be hospitalized, brought early to your death bed, or even death. God will bring home to Heaven a disobedient and no longer useful believer on earth. A Christian's purpose after salvation is to be a servant, a set apart one. A priest of Christ, an ambassador for the Gospel... our job is to serve God, use the gifts given at conversion, be well learned in the Word, equipped to live in this wicked sin stained world, to share the knowledge of truth, and the Gospel. We are to snatch people from the flames. If we are not useful to God here, then theres no longer a reason for us to be here. 

So to be blessed and useful to God, and to have a right relationship with our Heavenly Father and Christ our Savior, and the Holy Spirit indwelling.... we need to be walking the righteous pathway day by day. Carrying our cross, emptying ourselves of us and filling it in with Him. Living a obedient, useful life for our Father, God, and Savior. 

If we are not, God will use all the above to get our attention, warn us, escalate it and if necessary... remove the believer from Earth. 

If you are a believer and didnt know this, its time to stop playing church, stop living for you, worldly distractions, diversions, self... and live as an obedient follower of Christ. Get in the Word daily, and go serve your King. 


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