Our memories of the ways in which God has dealt with us in the past should lead us to the conclusion that he disciplines us as his sons. The way in which he has led us, the experiences which he has permitted us to pass through and all his gracious provision for us bear witness to this fact. How often he has brought us to an end of ourselves, causing us to be painfully aware of our need and then satisfying it. So he teaches us, as he taught his people long ago, that “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3).
We are to face our earthly life with the conviction that we are here to be taught and trained by our heavenly Father in the deepest sense “for our good,” (Heb. 12:10). The experiences we have are used by him for our instruction and sanctification, and for our preparation for the life to come:
He fixed thee mid this dance
Of plastic circumstance,
The present, thou, forsooth would fain arrest:
Machinery just meant
To give thy soul its bent,
Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently
Impressed.
(Robert Browning)
“Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”
Deuteronomy 8:5 NASB1995
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