Grace, Not Defeat!

Training a child up in the way they should go is hard work, and honestly, it can be downright tiresome. By 8am this morning, I am already finding myself mentally worn out! I spent the majority of this morning, all before getting the kids to school, explaining to my son that correction is not the same as defeat, but instead it’s a necessary part of what God is doing to make us fruitful. As frustrated as I felt deep inside my heart after trying to explain this to him, for what seems to be the thousandth time, I wondered how many times has God felt the same way towards me? How many times has God corrected and pruned me, only for my attitude to result in feeling defeated? How many times has God said to me, “It is correction! Not defeat!”
As parents, our aim in teaching our children, especially in the hard places of their lives, is not with the intentions of raining down defeat on their heads, but rather with efforts to build them up and shape their hearts. When my attitude towards God’s correction in my life results in an attitude of defeat, I realize two things are happening in my heart. First, I have made God’s correction about me instead of having a heart that desires obedience towards Him. Secondly, when I am wallowing in defeat, I am totally missing the acts of God’s grace in my life. God doesn’t just save us; He begins making us new! Apart of being new means taking off what is old. Although taking off all of the old stuff is hard and taxing, it’s certainly not for the intention of putting us down. Instead, God is working to build us up and making us more like Him! While God’s correction may have feels hard at the time, I look back on my life and I am able to see all that He has saved me from. How many additional hardships and heartaches would I have experienced in my life if it were not for God’s gracious correction intervening in my life?

Some seasons of our lives require lots of correction and lots of pruning. Even though this process is uncomfortable, it is necessary and it is for our good! In the discomfort of our spiritual growth, we cannot miss seeing God’s grace in our lives! For His correction is a gift of grace that is being given, not defeat!
Hebrews 12:15, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”