Endure Hardship as Training

"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? . . . God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness. 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." Hebrews 12:7, 10b-11 NIV

The Christian life is all about training. No one embraces salvation and becomes instantly the "perfect" Christian. There is a process of training, of discipline, that is required for us to learn how to change our desires from those of seeking pleasure to those of wanting to please God and live righteously.

Earlier in Hebrews, it stated that the solid food of God’s word "is for the mature, who by constant use, have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (5:14). It’s more than simply being able to tell the difference between good and evil; it’s about being willing to choose what is good at any point of decision. It’s about understanding what repentance really means and then actively living out repentance on a moment-by-moment basis in our lives.

That kind of discernment and focus requires discipline and training. We weren’t born wanting God’s will instead of our own. We were born egocentric. Our naturally tendency will always be to want what pleases us. But God, because He loves us so much, wants us to become like Christ who was willing to give up even His own life so that we might live. Our new life in Christ needs to be such that we are willing to love others sacrificially as Christ loves us. It means that we have only two focuses, only two goals: to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love others as we love ourselves. There can be no other definition of being a Christian.

Father God tells us to consider all hardship as discipline. Why? Because He has already promised that everything that happens to us, He will work for our good (Romans 8:28). Thus, all hardship, when treated as discipline, is transformed into something that draws us closer and closer to His heart. He wants for us to share in His holiness and righteousness, not only positionally through salvation, but functionally through behavior and choices that glorify Him. He wants our lives to produce "a harvest of righteousness" (right living) and the kind of peace that comes when we know that it doesn’t matter what we’re going through. He is working it for our good. When we treat hardship and pain as training, we can be confident that it will produce the kind of harvest that only God can promise.

© 2017 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.