Accepting

Accepting God’s chastising gracefully.

This article was originally published in the 2021 Teacher issue of Oh Beloved One magazine.

I just want to be open and honest before you all today. This article couldn’t have come at a better time. As I’m writing this, I feel like a boulder has dropped in my path, and there’s no way around it. It’s either a chastisement or a trial from God. I can’t be exactly be sure which since they feel so similar.

Maybe you can relate?

Maybe right now you feel as if life couldn’t get any better and things are totally going your way. Or maybe, as I feel right now, you are experiencing very hard times either physically, emotionally, or spiritually. It could be just a trial from God, meant to test you and refine you, but what if it’s not? What if the thing you and I are going through right now is a chastisement from God?

I want to be real and honest in this article, so I’m going to pull in a story from my own life. It was a time a couple of years ago when God chastised me, and I am not going to lie. It was really, really hard to take.

Now, before you get super scared thinking correction from God is a terrifying thing, it’s not for those who are His children. And looking back, I can say that I am so, so thankful for His correction in my life. I needed it, even though I didn’t know it, and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

A couple of years ago, I thought too highly of myself. In other words, I was proud. Now, at that time, I didn’t think I was; actually, I thought of myself as a very humble person.

Ironic, right?

I was part of a certain group and was kind of well-liked. Pretty soon, I developed several friendships, and we were kind of close.

Or so I thought.

Within less than a year, the friendships shattered, and I went from being kind of popular to feeling like an outcast.

Let me tell you, after that, my ego quickly deflated, and now, I’m the humblest person I know.

Ha-ha.

I’m only kidding.

When I was in the midst of it, I truly wanted to believe it was a trial. That I didn’t need any correction from God, and this was just a test.

Looking back, I know this was God gently reprimanding me. I needed correction. I needed humbled. To know that my identity comes from God and not from people. I needed to learn to put God first and to worship only Him.

It was hard. Accepting God’s correction was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

But you know what?

It was also one of the best, most freeing things I’ve ever done.

And to this day, I thank God for His good chastisement. It changed me. Molded me. Refined me. I would never go back to the person I was then. Even though God’s chastisement seemed painful at the time, I never regretted it.

Because, crazy as it sounds, through the gentle correction of my Heavenly Father, I’ve drawn closer to Him and learned His heart in a deeper, deeper way. And I would never wish for Him to stop correcting me because by His love and grace correcting when I’m wrong, He makes me into the person I am today.

A person, I pray, that is humbler and more like Jesus each and every day.

Job 37:13 “Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen.”

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