Reflection: ‘Warning!’ / ’No!’
Have you ever uplifted a little chin and said, ‘Look at me. No’!
Maybe before that you’d tried the warning trick, ‘Oone…Twoooo…Threeeee…’
Little people do well to focus. So do we.
‘Verily, verily…’ was Jesus’ way of taking his listeners by the chin.* Are you paying attention? Sometimes it’s like an invitation to wise advice/truth. But sometimes it’s more confronting and uncomfortable. Even an outright, ‘No’!
Can you remember a personal experience of God’s discipline?
Did you/do you have a bigger picture of what was going on?
Hebrews 12 paints three pictures of the outcome of God’s good discipline:
1) Trained and pained into maturity, we get to share the holy character of God.
2) Farmed by his loving hand, we are like an abundant harvest of righteousness and peace. At some stage, now or in the future we’ll joyfully celebrate the fruit of that arduous growing process.
3) Invigorated by those scenarios, we are determined pilgrims, strengthening each other until life’s journey’s end.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, in your atonement, we know our discipline has lost its sting. You have taken our punishment and for that we are ever humbled and grateful. Nevertheless, the process will be painful. Do what it takes for us to sincerely treasure you. We trust you, Father-God.
*According to one source, there are about 90 uses of “verily, verily” in the KJV Bible and more than 250 uses of “verily, I say unto you” in the four Gospels of the New Testament.