“For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone 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?” Heb 12:6-7 (Amplified)
The human nature is intrinsically rebellious to the things of God and this often affects our relationship with God. As Christians, we are God’s work in progress. The bible says that we are His workmanship created in Christ to do good works. The challenge for God is to ensure that we are a people fit for purpose in a world that seeks to nullify His work in us. We are sometimes unwittingly led or knowingly go astray by our own reprobate desires leaving God with little choice but to apply the painful whip of His corrective measures to our recalcitrant backsides. His goal is not to afflict pain as an end, but as a means to getting us back on track to maximal productivity as well as sustaining our relationship with Him. In order to accomplish this greater end, God’s love would have to be tough on us. So even when we cry for temporal relief, His higher end dictates that God should turn His face away until His purpose is achieved.
This shows that God’s love is not soppy. It is not just about sparing feelings – either His or ours, but about principles that needed to be upheld in order to achieve a greater end as well as benefit us, for it is only through divine discipline that we can be the true children of our heavenly father. Any other course of action would only cause us to be spiritual bastards without semblance of the God and Father who loves us.
I once read the story of how tough love helped save a life. An only son of a pious man went off the rail. He would break the law and then expect his father to get him off the hook and the latter always obliged. One day the father complained to God that he had prayed and had not received an answer. The response he received from God was that he was the one standing in the way of his own answers. By not allowing the son to face the music of his actions, he was depriving God of the leverage He needed to help the son come to his senses. Consequently, the man decided to regard his son as dead. So when he was again told that his son had committed a crime, he replied, my son is dead and refused to help him. His son was consequently thrown into jail and while there God was able to touch him. In the mean time, the father didn’t try to contact his son and he too did not contact his father. Just over a year later, the transformed son went to look for his father to seek forgiveness for the grief he had caused him. He even apologised for not coming to see him sooner and this was because he was trying to get his life together and that was how adopting tough love resolved a difficult situation. Applying tough love is not always pretty, but it may be the only recourse to seeing God’s power move in our situation. So, if you are facing a situation in need of a dose of tough love, take courage from God’s word that it is for the best, for the pain that is postponed will only return with greater vengeance. God is your strength.
Prayer:
Father, give me the strength of character to stand up for what is right today so that I can receive a future dividend of your love. Give me a greater understanding of your love so that I can treat my fellow men with greater compassion in Jesus name. Amen.