By Olubunmi Adebayo
*Chastening is the process of purifying a fellow with the intention of becoming better. It involves the process of punishing or reprimanding the individual for the sake of improvement.*
*The Word of God says :*
*Proverbs 3:[11] My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction.*
*In addition to the above, please also consider this :*
*Job 5: [17] Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.*
*The question is : Why does the average person or human being hate being disciplined?*
*Yes, why should you and I hate being disciplined after we have done something wrong?*
*In spite of our hatred for being disciplined, one thing we all forget is that disciplinary measures apart from being punitive, is part of the process to ensure that our lives do take proper shape. Therefore chastening is a critical instrument of intervention for our development.*
*If God, the Almighty One, with all the means and resources available at His disposal, engages the use of disciplinary measures to put man through or into shape in his journey of life, so should man.*
*We must all note and believe as stated below :*
*”Hebrews 12:6 -For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth”.*
*Any person or institution that undermines the process of disciplining as a tool of correction, hinders it own progress and development.*
*No doubt, the period of disciplining may not be pleasant as we go through them, but they bring out the necessary results that are important for our lives’ training, raising and rise.*
*”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”.*
*Check out fellows and children that are delinquent around you, they are mostly people who were denied disciplining at the right time or who rejected this life moulding instrument in their lives.*
*There are several people who are destined for greatness in life, but their state of indiscipline finished them off. Ask Reuben the first son of Jacob about his desire to sleep with the wife of his father and what this cost him? Ask Esau who would have come up in the roll call of great patriarchs, but for his life of indiscipline concerning his inordinate desire for food.*
*Truth be told, the cost of discipline in any man’s life is nothing compared to the gains thereafter in the future.*
*Let me conclude by asking you this question : “Do you think you would have come this far in life without the process of discipline that was applied on you?” Conversely, your own question may be this : “Fo you think you would have gone farther than where you are today if discipline had been applied appropriately on you?”*
*It is in the midst of chastening that great patriarchs of old were raised by God to become what God ordained them to be.*
*Tomorrow God willing, we shall consider some of these patriarchs that were chastened by God.*
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©️ Olubunmi S Adebayo.
