Redeeming ReignSample

Day 3: THE CORRECTION

If you love your children, you discipline, correct, and instruct them. Sometimes love hurts. Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable to hear. As a parent, you know how hard it is to watch your children sad or upset at the hands of your discipline. However, sparing the rod spoils the child (Proverbs 13:24). Correction hurts in the moment but fosters growth and maturity for the future. God disciplines His children. There is no expiration date on our need for correction. We don’t outgrow the need for discipline and instruction. When we sin or are disobedient, although it breaks God’s heart, He will do what is necessary to bring us back onto the right path; His path. I view the Lord’s correction as a pruning of my selfishness and a purging of my own unaligned, willful desires. It’s rarely pleasurable. However, the result is growth through instruction and leading. Once we understand that anything, whether painful or not, that leads us back to intimacy with and obedience to our Heavenly Father is worthwhile and priceless.

The Lord is gentle and patient, but also assertive in his convictions and resolve. He lovingly and graciously directs our path through wisdom and discernment. The Bible calls us to be quick to listen and slow to speak, but in my experience, I am rarely quick to listen and slow to act. Many times, I have been shown a path out of my sin or away from temptation, yet ignored the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, those lessons are most painful and littered with ramifications. I believe God presents two options for instruction and correction. First, He presents course correction in the midst of a moment or season. He presents alternatives and reveals detours that are designed to protect us from our own destructive behavior and choices. It’s a merciful nudge or a proverbial tap on the shoulder that says ‘you don’t want to go that way’ or ‘if you do that, you will regret it’ (I’m paraphrasing God). Failure to capitalize on those opportunities and re-route ourselves can become unnecessarily catastrophic. Ignoring those caution signs has always proven to be a costly mistake. That leads us to the second way I believe He corrects. Correction through consequence.

Nobody likes to admit to the reality of a wrathful God. Although He is capable of administering severe wrath, I prefer to think He removes covering from His children when we are willfully and repeatedly disobedient, selfish, and prideful in areas that separate us from Him. I’ve experienced many times in life where, looking back, He gave me every opportunity to choose a different path. I was either too blinded by my own desire or too prideful to think, “I’ve got this and I am in control of the situation”. As time passes, He must allow for our own actions to reap what they sow. He will remove the protection, provision, and covering for our self-induced pain to bring us back home to Him. He doesn’t cause our misery, but He allows correction through consequence at the hands of our poor choices. In the Old Testament, we see the Lord unveil truth through prophetic revelation, where Nathan exposes David’s adultery and murderous scheme. Paul’s writings in the New Testament are considered to be examples of course correction for all of us who need constant reminders of our need for a Savior. The teachings of God’s word are available as a guide to prevent the need for correction through catastrophic consequences.