Learning Through Pain

3/10/2023

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:1-2)

The Discipline of God

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the LORD loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.” (Prov. 3:11-12)
If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Heb. 12:3-11)

Renew Your Spiritual Vitality
(Gen. 25:29-34; 27:30-40)
Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. (Heb. 12:12-14)

One of the biggest obstacles to learning through pain something God is trying to Say or Answer about our decisions or direction or interpretation or character or relationships?

Pain and failure can either have the affect of 1) getting our attention about OURSELVES and our responses or decisions or judgments of others or relationships or character or compromises, for +1 CHANGE, because I’m obviously wrong, Tree of Life filter or 2) I can stay on the Tree of Knowledge path and view them as two different things: my bad luck and pain that makes me grumpier and more committed to finding comfort in what I WANT (rather than backing off and reconsidering MYSELF) plus maintaining my own path without Change.

What a waste 2) would be, even defiance of the Living God when He says, “Take Kill and Eat” or I will attempt to ReGuide you through my intervention.

Later that day...

I understand that further explanation is possibly helpful.

If I happen to notice that you were sitting on a stool in a room and someone on the other side of the street had a gun pointed right towards your head, what if I knocked you off that stool and you got a bruise and were shocked about me doing that to you.

I don’t even have to write the rest because you can figure it out, but I will.

Are you going to be mad at me and insulted and have a hard time forgiving me, mistrust me, and be grumpy with a bad mood because I knocked you off the stool and you don’t understand why, or believe me when I tell you — since they never pulled the trigger once I knocked you out of their sights?

I don’t even have to write the rest because you can figure it out, but I will.

I saved your life, and you are just going to have to trust me that I would only have your best interest in mind. Some later attempt on your life might make it convincing to you that the first one was real, or you might just trust me the first time.

I don’t even have to write the rest because you can figure it out, but I will.

The Scriptures from the previous note point to the fact that all of our bruises and pain and humiliation and disappointment are in the hands of a loving father, and being grateful for being knocked off our stool is the right response, even if we don’t understand it. It’s in his hands. He disciplines us for our good. Which means he trains us and instructs us for our good. Discipline=Disciple. Student. Apprentice. Punishment and discipline are not the same thing at all. Discipline is instructive or it’s not discipline. Greek: an instructor, preceptor, teacher. But because He is all good, it is all good. That’s all we need to know when we fail or are bruised or hurt or rejected or any such thing.

We may not know the instructive purposes or the protective purposes of getting knocked off the stool, or failing or hurting, but the master teacher knows, and that’s all that’s important.