From Discipline to Devotion

The overarching goal of God’s discipline is to guide us close to Him!  Why?  For us to enjoy Him!  What I mean by this is, that in His sovereignty, the way he’s written out the script for our lives, our greatest pleasure will only be found through carrying out His will.  You are wonderfully, yet uniquely made for His glory!  We, in our flesh and stubbornness tend to veer off the path He has set for us.  When the grand designer formed us for a purpose, don’t you think He knows best and has gifted us more than capable to accomplish His will for our good and His glory!  A Honda Accord is not made to carry a large four-wheeler!   We were not made for the mediocre pleasures of this world!  We were made by God for God to find great pleasure in serving God! 

In Jonah’s prayer, we’ll see how discipline from God leads to Jonah’s devotion to God.  That is a sweet place to be, but God often has to place us flat on our backs in order for us to look up!  It’s those times in which we’re so desperate that our only means of hope is God.  At the end of ourselves is where Christ begins! 

Hebrews 12:5-8 makes this clear!  “5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?  “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.  6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 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? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”

Proverbs 13:24 “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”

From Distress to Desperation vv.1-4

Psalms 142:6 “Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me!”  We believe this is David’s flee from Saul in the cave shown in 1 Samuel 22.  Distress leads to desperation.  That desperation can be good if it’s a desperation for God.  If it’s not, it will be destruction.  Satan wants us to feel our distress with temporal pleasures such as drugs and alcohol, bad relationships, and addictions.  God wants our desperation to be for Christ! 

From Desperation to Dependency vv.5-7

2 Corinthians 12:9-11 “9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

From Dependency to Devotion vv.8-10

Job 19:25 “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.”