"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."
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 Notice
what our verse says-"no chastening...seemeth to be joyous."
The point is not that chastening can't be joyous, but
if we only look at what is right in front of us, we will miss the possibility
for joy. Things are not always as they seem. In fact, I
would venture to say things are not ever as they seem. What we
can see is not all that is occurring. We have a very limited view
in the flesh of what is taking place. That is why faith is so
important. Faith lets us see that God is at work behind the scenes
in every circumstance. "By faith he [Moses] forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing
him who is invisible." (Hebrews 11:27) And faith not only
lets us see that God is at work; faith makes it possible for us to endure.
The only way to experience joy in the midst of the chastening (or adversity)
is if we recognize that which cannot be seen with the naked eye.
The problem, identified in Hebrews 12:11, is that we insist on supposing
things are as they seem to be. Our logic tells us this is the
way it is. Our eyesight tells us this is the way it is.
The world in which we live tells us this is the way it is. And,
if we listen to logic and sight and the world, we miss out on what God
has for us.
We
must see by faith. It is impossible to experience the joy
of the Lord during adversity unless we are relying on faith to see past
our circumstances. Joy is being filled with cheer (not happiness)
and experiencing calm delight in the soul. We will never know
joy if our focus is on the physical world we can see. Some people
say that it is impossible to change our focus, but God never gives us
an expectation that He does not enable us to fulfill. He says
in I Thessalonians 5:16, "Rejoice evermore." There
is no way around that one! It does not mean rejoice when we are
in Heaven someday; it means rejoice right now here on earth.
The most miserable Christians I know are those who despise the chastening
of the Lord. They allow the circumstances of their suffering to
make them miserable because they make the mistake of thinking and believing
that things are as they seem to be. Even when things are going
wrong and we are suffering, God is not dead. He has not abandoned
us. He is very active and involved in our lives. That is
the only way we can rejoice in chastening. If we insist on living
by what we can see (which is logical and makes sense), we forfeit the
potential of joy, and we guarantee the presence of grief in our lives-it
seems grievous, which means to be filled with sorrow and sadness.
You will be de-energized, diminished, de-motivated, and depressed.
Notice
the word "nevertheless" in verse eleven. What does 'nevertheless'
mean? It means "always the more." How does that fit
in with the context here? This passage is teaching us that it
is only through enduring God's chastening that we make spiritual progress
in our lives. There is something about progress: it is much easier
for it not to happen. The more you endure, the longer you endure,
and the more difficult the trials and testings you endure, the greater
will be the progress you make in your walk with the Lord and your work
for the Lord. We must see the progressive benefits of enduring
chastening. It is much slower to go forward for God than it is
to go backward away from God. Picture the Christian life as climbing
up a mountain. As long as we are ascending the mountain, our progress
will be slow, but we are moving forward. If we fall, we start
moving very rapidly-in the wrong direction.
I
have known people who were faithful to God for many years. They
followed Him, were active in church, were a blessing and encouragement
to others, and were moving up the mountain. They were growing
and maturing and drawing closer to God. Yet, in the space of just
months or even days, they can undo all of the effort of those years.
It is always faster to regress than it is to progress.
Sometimes it is hard to realize that we are making any progress at all.
Our growth seems so slow that we think we are standing still.
But, we are never standing still-we are either moving forward or falling
back. We are either moving up or moving down.
My
friend, may I ask....which way are you moving today???
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