Saturday, April 26, 2014
[by Keesha Sullivan]
I thoroughly enjoyed my very first year as a teacher. I loved everything about it. I found excitement in even what some veteran teachers would call "mundane tasks." I would smile from ear to ear when a student would ask me to write a pass to go to the bathroom or raise his or her hand to answer a question. I had a great group of students that were bright, engaged, and loving. There was only one thing that I hated doing when it came to teaching. I hated disciplining my students. If I even slightly scolded them, the tears would begin cascading down their cheeks. My heart would literally ache for them.
Eventually as I was doing my quiet time, God led me to a verse that made it easier to discipline these precious ones. Proverbs 3:11-12 says, " My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." I had not looked at discipline as love. I had previously thought of it as "being mean." This verse opened my eyes to discipline actually being a true form of love. In fact the verse goes as far as to say that if a father delights in his son then he too will discipline him.
In the passage we read today, Gideon is completely transparent with the angel of the Lord. He says, "But sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian" (Judges 6:13). The reason all of this happened to the Israelites was due to God's incredible, unconditional love for them. God found delight in His children Israel, and He knew He needed to discipline them in order to help them.
In Psalm 94:12, it says, "Blessed is the man you discipline, O Lord, the man you teach from your law; you grant him relief from the days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked." Gideon didn't understand why the Lord's hand was against them, and they were being impoverished by the Midianites. God had a plan for the Israelites. He had a plan that would prosper them and not harm them.
God thought and felt differently than Gideon. Isaiah 55:8 says, '"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,' says the LORD. 'And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine."' By disciplining Israel God knew that when He saved them the Israelites would recognize that it was He who delivered them and no one else. The Israelites could not ride on the coattails of their fathers' faith. They could not reminisce about their fathers' deliverance from Egypt and truly understand the magnitude of God's power and love. They had to experience it for themselves. Gideon, who was part of the weakest clan in Manasseh, would lead the Israelites to freedom by God's power.
Lord, we thank you so much for giving us our own intimate experiences with You. We thank You that these experiences lead us into a greater understanding of Your awesome power and love. We thank You for Your discipline even when it hurts. We thank You that You love us enough that You discipline us. We pray that we would experience more of You and we would learn from the past. We love You so much Lord. We need You. Help us to become the great men and women of God that You desire us to be. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment