Hebrews 12:7-10 (NIVUK)
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined – and everyone undergoes discipline – then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.
Being a Christian guarantees that life will be a bed of roses; there are lovely blooms to admire, but you will also find times when you are lying on spiky thorns! If you haven’t discovered this yet, you soon will do. The question is not will we experience hardship as a Christian, but what do we do when we do? Do we allow it to put us off, to wear us down, and give up, or do we face up to it, and let God work in us through it. The author of Hebrews seems to be suggesting that God uses times of hardship to build up our character and stamina, just as an athlete endures the hours of training in order to have the stamina to run; ‘no pain, no gain’ as they say. It’s not that God inflicts suffering on us, but he uses it for good when it comes.
Father help us not to be put off when hardship comes, but to be open to what you might be teaching us during it.
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