Devotional for Today

God delights in us!

Many Christians that when they are going through a difficult circumstance that doesn't resolve right away that perhaps God is 'punishing' them. I have felt this way from time to time and maybe you have too. I felt led share this short devotional with you today. Its not about my writing project (though I'm working hard on it), its about you. I hope as you deal with difficulties in your life, that this post ministers to your need.

Guilt. Haven’t we all felt this before. Me too. One of the tools that Satan uses against us as Christians is “false guilt”. The purpose of “false-guilt” is to alienate us from God, creating an imagines barrier between us and our heavenly Father.

Real guilt that we feel when God convicts of sin has one purpose: to motivate us to ask for forgiveness.” Confession and forgiveness not only brings relief but brings joy (James 4:9). As far as I know, the Bible says that when we are born again our sins are” forgiven, we are cleansed,(1 John 1:9) and we have become new creatures in Christ. In fact, “old things have passed away and all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Let’s look at a key passage that deals with the idea of God “punishing us”.

“In your struggle against sin, have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:

"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,

and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

⁶because the Lord chastises those he loves,

and he scourges everyone he accepts as a son." (KJV)

Unfortunately, some translations use the word ‘punish’ instead of discipline. That is an incorrect interpretation of the Greek language here. In these verses, the Bible says three things about our struggle with sin and how God works in our lives to change us.

First, in relation to sin, the above verses state that God ‘chastens’ and ‘scourges’ his children. In Greek, the word ‘chasten’ means “to train up a child, to instruct, teach and discipline”. I don’t know about you, but I disciplined my kids so they would learn something. God is training us to become more like Christ, not to punish us for past sin.

Second, the verses state that God ‘scourges’ his children. The word ‘scourges’ literally means “to discipline” or “training people like children”. Through difficulties God is not ‘punishing us’, instead, he is ‘training us to become mature (grow up) into the image of Christ’.

Third, God ‘trains, teaches, disciplines’ us because He “accepts us as sons”. The word ‘accepts’ means that God ‘draws us near to Him and delights in us’. In other words, God’s goal in training and disciplining us is not to ‘punish us’, but to strengthen our relationship, create greater intimacy like a Father has with his children. God delights in you Chris. In me too.

Remember, Satan wants to create a barrier between you and God through ‘false guilt’. Your real guilt has already been forgiven, it’s a thing of the past. The Bible says, “I have cast your sins into the sea of my forgetfulness. As far as the east is from the west, have I removed your sins from you”.

God loves you, he delights in you, he accepts you. He wants to draw you closer, create greater intimacy in his relationship with you. He is your Father and you are his child. Whatever, you are going through, God is teaching you, training you, disciplining you (I like the idea of investing in you) because God’s goal in your life is to make you more like Christ.