The Discipline of the Lord

The Discipline of the Lord

God brings discipline to His people in a variety of ways.

“Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.” Deuteronomy 8:5

Besides the active spiritual disciplines which are revealed in God’s Law—seeking Him, assembling to Him, hearing Him, and so forth—the Lord also explains that He brings other disciplines to bear on behalf of His people from time to time. Whereas the people of God are to be actively involved in certain spiritual exercises, they would be more passive in receiving the disciplines we shall be examining in what follows.

The word “discipline” comes from a Hebrew root which combines in one idea various related ones. The essence of musar (from yasar) is “instruction.” But it also means to chastise or correct. Implied in the idea of “discipline” therefore is the need for change in our lives. God disciplines us because something about our lives needs changing or improving. He provides us with active disciplines so that we may learn to seek Him and grow in Him gradually, as He instructs and transforms us through the various means of grace. In passive spiritual disciplines the Lord brings us to situations which, while they are typically not pleasant, they are always intended to draw us closer to the Lord, which is the purpose of our covenant relationship with Him.

Understanding this, we can receive the passive discipline of the Lord with gratitude and joy. Even though, as we shall see, such disciplines are not pleasant, still, the hand of the Lord is in them for our good. We will only benefit from the passive disciplines of the Lord when we learn to receive them with thanksgiving and look to the Lord for the instruction, correction, or growth He is seeking to accomplish in us.

So we must not despise the trials, difficulties, temptations, setbacks, disappointments, and so forth that we encounter in our walk with the Lord. They come to us from our Father’s hand; they are completely in line with His covenant promise to bless us; and they can fit us for a closer and more consistent walk with Him, and greater service in His Name.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.