Scripture

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not disabled, but rather healed.

Observation

We are to endure hardship as discipline. Every father disciplines his sons. If you are not disciplined, then you must be illegitimate children, not true sons.

Human fathers discipline us as they see fit, and we respect them for it. But God disciplines us to make us holy. We don’t enjoy any discipline at the time, but it produces a harvest of righteousness.

Therefore, we must strengthen our feeble arms and knees so that the lame may be healed.

Application

In our happy clappy styles of worship and our feel good therapeutic sermons, we forget or overlook the fact that God is a good father.

Good parents discipline their children in order to shape their interactions with the world and other people. When children are not disciplined, they grow up to be selfish, bullies and thugs.

God wants the best for His children, and that includes allowing the difficulties of life to mould us into the people He wants us to be. The kingdom of God is meant to be full of people who know grace, mercy and empathy; not with overgrown babies demanding their own way.

The writer to the Hebrews is telling us to grow up and get over ourselves. We are to strengthen our arms in service and our weak knees in prayer. We are to help the lame similarly become mature in their faith.

Tough words from a God who loves us more than any earthly father,

Prayer

Lord, please train my thinking so that I learn to see you at work in my life in every way. Help me to welcome your discipline. Amen.