Obtaining Mercy

 

"I bear my willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord's workshop.  I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod.  When my schoolroom is darkened, I see most." ~C.H. Spurgeon

 

Proverbs 13:24 "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes."

 

Hebrews 12:6-7 "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?"

 

Does the Lord have His hand of correction on you right now?

Let me encourage you:  That correction is proof of His love.

God wants the very best for us at all times.  When we stray from His way, He longs to bring us back into obedience and fellowship. 

If His goodness doesn't move our hearts, then He will chasten us, punish us, in love, to draw us back to His side.

The alternative of God's chastening us, His ignoring our sin, is an awful thing.  If He does not take us to task for our sin, the Scripture tells us that we are not His children.

 

Hebrews 12:8 "But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons."

 

The point of chastisement isn't simply to bring us back into alignment with the will of God.  It also serves to remind us that we are His.

His children are His responsibility, and He used His blessings as well as His chastenings to conform us to the image of His dear Son.

Hebrews 12:10 "For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness."

 

I know it is a painful place to be.  I know that no punishment is joyful.   There have been days that I felt I would surely die under His hand of chastisement.  I felt that I couldn't bear another day of His correction.  But God promises that it will do a work in our hearts and that it will bring blessing into our lives.

 

Hebrews 12:11 "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

 

Our heart's response to His chastening should be one of gratitude, submission and obedience.

 

Job 5:17 "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty"

We must not despise God's punishment.  We must see it for what it is: our Father's love in action.

God's promises are not without condition.  Every one of them is hinged on two things:  God's Word and our obedience.

If we fail to go to the Bible in the midst of our pain and suffering, we rob ourselves of the one Book that will offer us real peace, real answers and real solutions.

In God's Word we find examples of others who suffered just as we do, and we see how they believed God and obeyed Him.  As their stories unfold we see God's hand at work in their lives.

It is sometimes (most of the time) difficult for us to see God's hand at work in our lives.  It's that whole "can't see the forest for the trees" scenario.  As we stand in the middle of our storm, we cannot get the bird's eye view that other's have.

So we go to the stories from the Word, and find comfort in how God worked in the lives of His children, knowing that He has not changed and can still work the miracles and promises in our lives, as He did in theirs.

The writer of Hebrews mentions this principle of learning from others:

Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Did you notice that it says "that ye be not slothful"?

If we really want God's answers to our problems, we cannot sit in the corner sucking our thumb, waiting for our answer to come floating down from Heaven on a gossamer thread.

We must read the Word, study the Word, hear It preached, and apply Its principles to our lives.  We must obey God's commands, submit our hearts to His way, and change our way of thinking to line up with His.

It really isn't for the "slothful", is it? 

A lazy woman will not do the work necessary to find the answers that she needs.

Why are you not reading the Bible for yourself?

We cannot use the excuse that it just doesn't make sense, or that we can never glean things for ourselves from Its pages.  That is the excuse of a lazy person.

We have the same Holy Spirit residing in us as the greatest preacher we have ever heard expound the Scriptures.

Do we want God's answers for our lives?

We must Read His Word!

 

"Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces." ~Robert Leighton

 

Luke 4:[1] And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
[2] Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

 

John 11:[33] When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
[34] And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
[35] Jesus wept.
[36] Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!

 

Jesus, being the very Son of God, still knew temptation and hunger. 

In spite of His deity, He still cried tears of grief. 

Our dark days are not proof of deep sin.

They are proof that God is working in us, changing us, molding us, to make us more like His dear Son.

 

"God hath many sharp-cutting instruments, and rough files for the polishing of His jewels; and those He especially loves, and means to make the most resplendent, He hath oftenest his tool upon." ~Robert Leighton

 

"And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel." Isaiah 45:3

 

"We are not meant to always linger in the dark…presently we shall be summoned to take our place in the rush and storm of life; and when that moment comes, we are to speak and proclaim what we have learned." ~F. B. Meyer

 

The Christian life is all about sharing what we know, what we have learned of Christ, to others.

Is your soul is darkness now?

God has a precious truth to share with you there.

Settle your soul before Him and gather the treasures He has for you.

The light will one day shine again, and you will have an abundance of riches to share with others who are cowering in the darkness.

 

"God sometimes shuts the door and shuts us in,

That He may speak, perchance through grief or pain,

And softly, heart to heart, above the din,

May tell some precious thought to us again."

~Streams in the Desert

 

 

"That our souls should have their mountains of fellowship,

Their valley of quiet rest beneath the shadow of the great rock,

Their nights beneath the stars,

When darkness has veiled the material and silenced the stir of human life,

And has opened the view of the infinite and eternal,

Is as indispensable as that our bodies should have food."

~F. B. Meyer

 

We – out of necessity – must have our mountaintops and our valleys, our days of sunshine and nights of stormy darkness.

God works in all of it, uses all of life's experiences, to make us the person He wants us to be.

It is up to us to learn through each lesson, and to be thankful for all of it.

 

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." Psalm 90:12-14