⁷ It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Sonship and discipline go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other. When we understand this, we are motivated to endure our difficulties as being part of the growth process. God’s discipline is like a weight-lifter in training who periodically adds weights to the bar. Why would anyone want to do this? Because that is the way to build muscle strength. Physiologically, as the weight increases, muscle fibers actually tear under the greater burden. But as the fibers heal, they become stronger and in time the muscles are able to lift more weight

Likewise, God as our heavenly Father, desires our spiritual growth. And if we are in tune with His purposes in our life, then we too desire to grow spiritually, to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25). So when struggles and sufferings of life descend upon us, if we see them as God’s adding more weight to our spiritual bar bell, then we know that He is desiring our spiritual growth, and our ability to handle more struggles of faith. We are then enabled to endure those things in faith. So our difficulties in life are really faith-building exercises.

If there is no discipline, then the relationship as sons of God is called into question. I remember my coach from high school basketball days yelling at us, riding us in practice, doing whatever he could to cajole us into being better players and a better team. During one period of time, he was particularly severe on me, and I began to resent it. Then one day he stopped riding me, stopped yelling and correcting me. I was relieved. He kept up his yelling at the other team members, but not me. But in time, I became worried. He wasn’t paying any attention to me, and I was beginning to feel like he wasn’t really treating me like part of the team.

I began to long for him to yell at me again, and run me hard in practice. So, I began to practice hard, run more and go through the drills with an added enthusiasm. And finally, the coach started paying attention to me again … yes, and yelling at me. I began to appreciate his treatment of us, and began to find it motivating, realizing now that it was his way of paying attention to his players, to get the most out of each one. So too, with God. He uses discipline through suffering to get the most spiritual growth out of us so that we become stronger in facing the difficulties of life.

Lord, thank You for disciplining me like Your son, for that is what I am.