Whenever our heavenly Father uses the rod of correction, it is in love, and for our profit. We should not, therefore, on the one hand make light of it and on the other hand, we should not sink under it in despondency.
If we err by treating Divine correction with indifference, we thereby ask for severer treatment, for the strokes of the rod must be repeated until we feel them and submit to them!
And if we err by fainting under rebuke, it is a proof that we forget how pitiful and tender a Father corrects us, and that He intends nothing but our present profit and everlasting good. Chastening only benefits us as we are "exercised" by it and therefore we must feel it. But if we faint, we shall fail to apprehend the gracious purposes of it.
O my Father, let me ever turn to You, when You use the rod, in submission, in trust, and love. Do not allow me to slight Your gentler rebukes, and permit me not to faint under Your severer discipline. May I remember that, though "no chastening for the present seems to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto those who are exercised thereby."
[Author Unknown]
✞✞✞
Hebrews 12:5-6 ... And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Micah 6:9 ... The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.
Revelation 3:19 ... As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.❤
