Purify Your Mind Series (Part 2) by Joe KirbySample

Good Fathers Discipline Their Children

A gifted artist was once asked, “How did you sculpt such a beautiful elephant?” The artist replied, “I just chip away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant.” We often see God’s discipline as a bad thing, as if the God of the universe is some big ogre who loves to wag his finger at us in disapproval. But actually, God is a loving Father. He sees the sins that ruin us and in His mercy, He chips them away. Both my dad and my grandpa have had skin cancer, and for the surgeon to cut that cancer out of the flesh is a very painful process, but it takes the poison away. Likewise, God will chip away at us; perhaps it’s our unwillingness to repent from sexual sin, or maybe it’s our pride, but be sure of this—if you don’t deal with it yourself, God will deal with it and it will hurt. That’s why wise believers should do everything in their power to humble themselves because when the Lord humbles, He really humbles.

If right now you are reading this and you are enduring the discipline of the Lord, don’t despise it. See it as a mark of love from your heavenly Father. When I take my son to the playground and I see other children misbehaving, I don’t start disciplining them because they are not mine. And so the unbeliever down the road may get away with murder, but God brings His heavy hand down upon you for one piece of gossip. Don’t be angry. It’s a sign that you are a child of God. He will not stop chipping away at our sinful character until He sees Christ, His only begotten Son.

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).