Viewing Hardship as Discipline
Hebrews 12:1-13
Introduction
Have you ever wondered where hardship in your life is coming from?
Those times when you’re going through real difficulties and you wonder if this is God doing this to you or whether it’s a demonic attack or whether it’s just part of living in a fallen world.
How should we understand these hardships, and what should we do about them?
Read: Hebrews 12:1-13
1. Treat Hardship as Discipline from God
v.7: literally “For discipline endure…”
When tough times come, as they will, endure them as discipline from God.
Sometimes we lose the value of hardship because we never answer the question of why we are experiencing it. Because we don’t know why we are experiencing it we often fail to learn from it. The fact is that we very often do not understand the reasons behind our hardships, but we are told to treat them as though they are discipline from God. Why should we do that?
Because unlike hardship, which can be random, discipline has a purpose. There is something we must learn, something we must change, something we must stop or something we must do as a result of discipline.
The Hebrew Christians are being told “Don’t treat your sufferings as pointless and become discouraged by them, treat them as something that has a purpose, a purpose which is good”.
2. Remember that Discipline has a Purpose
Let’s think about this – if God really is all-powerful, and He is our Father, then He would not allow us to go through suffering unless there were a point to it. God does not delight in our misery! So what purpose would God have in causing or allowing us to suffer hardships?
Haven’t you asked that question sometimes? Haven’t you been asked that question sometimes?
The answer is found by remembering four essential truths
a) God Hates Evil
Sometimes when people think of God the Father they think of a cruel Judge who punishes people for their frailties and shortcomings, an angry God who is not easily appeased. We fail to recognise that God’s hatred of sin is so intense because His love of goodness is so complete. Anyone who loves goodness must hate evil. The more I see of evil in this world the more I hate it, and I am not all seeing and I’m not perfectly good. I still am drawn toward evil myself. I can’t imagine how hard it is for God to tolerate the existence of evil in His creation, and it’s just because He is giving people time to repent and be forgiven that Has not destroyed this corrupted world long ago.
b) We are in God’s Family
Can you imagine such a God being content for His children to be complacent about evil in their lives? Not only that, but He has given us the responsibility of being His representatives to the world? Dare we claim to represent this God when we allow sin to remain a part of our lives? Of course God will deal with sin wherever it occurs in His family.
c) God loves us
This is not just because of His own hatred of sin, it is because of His love for us that He desires us to be free from the corruption of sin in our lives. He wants us to experience the blessing that comes from right living, and He knows that temporary hardships are worthwhile in order to help us move onto the path of righteousness.
Each of these three truths address the reality of sin in our lives that is dealt with through suffering. However not all hardship that we go through is a result of our sin or is even intended to deal with our sin. Some discipline is for the purpose of training us for future maturity and future ministry.
Sometimes we ask the question “What have I done to deserve this?”. There are times when God needs to speak to us about that. There are times however when the issue is not what you have done to deserve it, but what you can become after you endure it.
d) God has a plan for us
As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, God has a race marked out for us to run. But we are entangled by sin and cannot run it effectively. We must throw off the sins that entangle us, and God uses discipline to help us to do that. Not only that, but we know that this race involves us doing good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do. Discipline gives us the strength and wisdom to do those tasks. It’s the training that strengthens our feeble arms and week knees, in order for us to not only be healed ourselves, but to enable us to run the race that God has marked out for us.
According to Hebrews 5 Jesus Himself was prepared for His future ministry through suffering. In Genesis we read the story of Joseph who was betrayed and abused by his own family, but listen to what Joseph said to them many years later after going through all sorts of tough times: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”[1]
Don’t ever despair in tough times, recognise that God has a good purpose to accomplish, and that He will achieve it as you allow Him to work through those hardships.
3. Look Forward to the Fruit of Discipline
v.11 – No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.[2]
Read: Romans 5:1-5
Conclusion – The Story of Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33)
Regardless of the cause of your suffering, God will bring about a good result in your life, just like He did for Manasseh, if you will turn to Him and allow Him to achieve His good purpose through it.
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