Spankings

chastening, afflictions, admonishing, rebuking, reprimanding, scoldings, reproving, and disciplining have similar meanings.

"Spanking" is considered a bad word in our society, because we have gotten away from God's words and have altered the meaning of words so they are more to our sinful liking. Spankings are now called "child abuse;" however, that is not the view of the Bible.

I have been reading Sermons from Job, by John Calvin, Selected and Translated by Leroy Nixon.Available at www.solid-ground-books.com or 205-443-0311. These are WOW sermons,

Throughout Scripture God chastens - scolds, disciplines spanks, and punishes His children in order to bring them back to Himself. "Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; therefore, do not despise the chastening of the Almighty" Job 5:17.

How can we not despise those times and be happy with God's afflictions? It's simple! We can see those times from God' perspective and what He tells us in His Word. The Bible says God spanks us because He loves us. He is concerned for our holiness. He wants us to conform to His truth and live lives that honor Him, which is the absolute best for us.

If we are not as teachable as we should be, we will not see the majesty of God in everything and we will not rightly fear God. That means we will not receive God's corrections and be blessed by them as we should.

When God lays His judgments before us by spanking us, we should tremble at His sovereignty. We should fear Him. We should reckon that it is only by His unending love for us that He is bringing about in us the correction we need. (AND we should acknowledge that we deserve far worse than whatever has come upon us.) "My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof, for whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights" (Proverbs 3:11,12).

"My son, do not think lightly or scorn to submit to the correction and discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage and give up and faint when you are reproved or corrected by Him; For the Lord corrects and disciplines every one whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.  You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline. God is dealing with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train and correct and discipline? Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all [of God's children] share, they you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons [at all]" Hebrews 5-8 (Amplified Bible).

God chastens us because He loves us, BUT, in the chastening He does not give us over to death. Oh, we will die one day, but the point here is that the daily troubles God brings into our lives will not hurt us. They are truly for our good and for God's glory. And that is the point. Everything is not about us but about God's glory. Jesus didn't die on the cross to make us happy. He died to make us holy.

The main thing we need to realize when we are laid low by the hand of God is that this is the way which God proves His love to us, AND our love for Him. It is the way He crucifies our self-centered pride. It is the way He cleanses us from our filthiness. He does all this to bring us into submission, which brings us into His loving arms. These times make us depend upon Him. They make us search the Scriptures and pray. 

When we see our afflictions in the light of what God is doing, we are truly benefited by them. Only then will we exalt God and bless His name for doing all things well.