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The discipling nature of our walks with God - Part 2

Tuesday 26 August 2008 at 10:03 pm.

I ended my last post on this topic with my challenge to be like Jesus in His commitment to avoid sinning by wrestling in prayer until I can withstand the temptation. This time, I want to continue walking through Hebrews 12 and enjoy the choice spiritual morsels that are in that passage.

Now let's get back to Hebrews 12, and specifically verse 4.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Free side note: Call me thick-headed, but I only just recently realized Paul is not talking about shedding blood because of persecution, but instead about Jesus’ passionate and bloody battle in prayer to avoid sinning while in the garden. I know many people believe that Jesus was so intense because of a fear of the cross. But I refuse to believe that. By no means to I mean to belittle what Jesus was about to go through. But it goes against so many commands of God to be afraid of something so temporary. No. Jesus was so intense in prayer because of His desire to please God and not give in to temptation. And He did this to avoid sinning even once!

The fact is we need to fight, just like Jesus, to avoid sinning even once. And this includes in our relationships with other people.

Question: What is the best thing to do when we are having a problem with another person?

Answer: PRAY!

Question: What is the hardest thing to do when we are having a problem with another person?

Answer: For me, at least, it's to PRAY!

The truth is, when we pray about a problem we are having with another person, we must instantly take the posture of:

• “What can I do to avoid sinning.”
• “In what way might I have been wrong.”
• “What is it that that I need to change”?
• This is followed up with deep searching about how the other person might have been right.
• And dare I say that when we go and address another person with whom we have had a struggle that we begin with an apology for sinning against them – and maintain that humble posture?

Honestly, our first desire should always be to maintain righteousness..always...not matter what.

Let’s look at some of the expectations and truths that the passage in Hebrews 12 lays out here, beginning in verse 5. 

 [5] And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:    "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
        and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
    [6] because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
        and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
[7] Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? [8] If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. [9] Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! [10] Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

Confession: For the longest time I read this passage in a “hard” light as if being honed, trained, disciplined, and rebuked by God was...well...not necessarily "bad," but more like “ungood.” This time I read it and heard a different heart behind the passage. Listen to what is really being said here.

•  Don’t forget you’re God’s child
  •  This is the highest honor we could possibly have bestowed upon us
•  Don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline
  •  He is actively involved in disciplining us and training us
•  Don’t get emotionally weird when He rebukes
  •  Rebukes from the Lord are good!
•  If we are not disciplined by Him, it would be a sign that He didn’t love you
  •  How many times do my kids say “Why do you always make me go to my bed or take away privileges?
•  Because I love you
  •  If you are being punished, you are being accepted!
  •  Strange, but it’s true.

You get the idea. We are supposed to embrace the Lord’s discipline.

Let’s continue reading in verse 11:

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. 

Here are some tell-tale signs that we are actively being "trained by" the Lord's discipline:

• We give the Holy Spirit free reign over the deepest regions of our souls in order to be perfected in Christ
• We actually seek out times to spend with the Lord just to get our hearts set for the next several hours or so
• We do battle with the Lord as Jacob did and don’t give up without gaining the victory!

 When this becomes our walk with the Lord, we will: 

• Be inspired
• Be inspiring
• Be involved in many growing relationships
• Be freed from the grasp of the evil one
• Be living life to the full
• Be like Christ who: for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

*** And that’s right where I want to be too!
   
Let’s look one more time at the example of our Lord Jesus and how He fought so diligently to avoid sinning…and how clear it is that He did so for US!

During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. (Herbrews 5:7-9)

Jesus allowed His walk with the Father to get Him past the temptations thrown His way by Satan and bring Him into a peaceful, quiet place of reverent submission.

I want to do likewise!

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