Last evening we enjoyed an excellent lesson taken from the life of Jacob. He is certainly an interesting patriarch. We see him beginning life as a man of shrewdness and deception. And then we see him in his final days as a man of humble character. Between these two representations of his character lies a life filled with many sorts of trials, temptations and difficulties.
The transformation of life is not something that is magical. It comes as a result of purposeful discipline. And God is the Director of that discipline:
Hebrews 12:5-7 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
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?
This text encourages us to both recognize the discipline of God and to respond to it with faith. It helps me to view this in the light of sports and athletic pursuits. The disciplines impose by an athletic coach are not ever comfortable and seldom easy. It is my observation that God often brings his children into financial hardship and difficulty (as just one example) to teach them a proper view of property and possession along with faith and dependence upon Him.
The path to spiritual maturity is not simple and it is long. We need to recognize this reality both for ourselves and those we walk the path of life with. We need to patient both with ourselves and those we walk with. We need to also understand that spiritual maturity is a path we walk and that the destination is in eternity.
Romans 8:23-26 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
So………..be patient with yourself and with those around you!
