Sweetly Broken

“For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.”—Hebrews 12:6

Sweet brokenness. It’s a sweet thing to be broken by God—because to be broken by God of sin and self means that one is a child of the King. Another name for brokenness is discipline or chastisement. I am a parent and love my children dearly, which means that I discipline them when they sin or do something foolish. However, my children don’t always understand what I’m doing. Instead they get angry and tell of other kids they know who aren’t disciplined for doing what they just did. I try and explain to them that I discipline them because I love them. I want what’s the absolute best for them. Therefore, my job is to train them to do what is absolutely best—and that is to know and obey God. If I didn’t love them, then I wouldn’t care what they did.

Spiritually, we’re a lot like children. Whenever we experience God’s discipline we complain, looking at others who are doing much worse, wondering why they are not being disciplined when we are. It is at moments like that we must remember the words from the book of Hebrews,

“'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by Him.
For the Lord disciplines the one He loves,
and chastises every son whom He receives.' 

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 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? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it"—Hebrews 12:5-11.

Why does God discipline us? For our good, in order that we may share in His holiness, which is to say that we might become more like Him. It is for our purification, just as gold is tried in the furnace in order to make it pure, or the clay is hollowed out to be made suitable for the master’s use; we are tried in the furnace and hollowed out in order to become more like Christ.

Are you being disciplined by the Lord right now? Are you trying to fight it or are you submitting to it? Remember, God doesn’t discipline you because He hates you. No! God disciplines you because He loves you! Consider your brokenness to be sweet since it is because God loves you so much that He wants to make you more like Himself! What joy!

May God enable each one of us to truly see His hand and purpose in our brokenness. It is for our joy that He is breaking us of sin and self. He wants to conform us to the image of our Savior so that we might experience the joy of knowing and following Him. May we submit to His hand of discipline and find the power of Christ present in our lives so that God might receive glory and we might grow in joy. Amen.