“Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?”

This idea of being disciplined by God should not seem strange to us. We have experienced discipline from our earthly fathers from the time we were born. And what was our reaction to that childhood discipline? The writer is not speaking of cruel or unrighteous punishment that might have been wielded by a physical father. It is understood that that is wrong and would be rejected by any child. But the common response to reasonable instructive discipline would be respect.

Even as children, we sense the difference between punishment in anger and discipline for good. We know that our parents were human and subject to errors but we also knew when the discipline was out of love. As children we may have rejected our parent’s claim that “this is hurting me more than it is you,” but when we became parents and discipline became necessary we understood the statement.

I think of Jesus’s lament over Jerusalem. How he wanted to gather them under his protective wing and they rejected his discipline.

Task for Today: Don’t reject the discipline from God. It’s not about God it’s about you. Any discipline you may receive is for your eternal benefit. By all means, embrace it, rejoice in it. Use it to grow your faith. Thank God for loving you so much that He interfered in your life.