Saturday, October 25, 2014 [by Keesha Sullivan]
In the scriptures that we read today, Jeremiah spoke doom over the Moabites and Ammonites. One might think that with all of the things that Jeremiah pronounced over these groups that God didn’t love them anymore. One might even believe that God didn’t care for their well being. That is how I have felt in the past when God has disciplined me. I have sometimes felt like God didn’t love me anymore. I have asked the question, “Why me?” I have told Him that “I just didn’t understand why I had to go through all of this pain and heartache.”Discipline never feels good. In fact it is pretty excruciating.
I believe that God feels like we do when we have to discipline a loved one. He feels sad, but He knows that He has got to do it for the good of the person as well as for His glory. In Jeremiah 48:36, God says, “So my heart laments for Moab like a flute; it laments like a flute for the men of Kir Hareseth.” [To lament means to express grief and sorrow passionately.] It seems as though it truly troubled God to see Moab in the state that it was in as well as to know what He would have to do in order to restore them. Although the discipline lasted but a moment, joy indeed would come eventually. The Lord declared over each people group, “Yet I will restore the fortunes of [the Moabites and Ammonites] in days to come” (Jeremiah 48: 47 and Jeremiah 49: 6).
Maybe right now you are experiencing the discipline of the Almighty. Just remember that He only disciplines those He loves, and that “…we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Lord help us to receive Your discipline with gracious hearts. Help us to trust in You and Your goodness. Thank You for loving us enough to discipline us. Have Your way in us and through us. Amen
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