DAILY DEVOTIONAL BY: PASTOR PAUL RIKA, INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR, Holiness Revival Movement Worldwide
TOPIC: CHASTISEMENT IS PAINFUL BUT IT PROFITS THE SOUL
DATE: SATURDAY 2nd, JANUARY 2021
TEXT: Romans 5:3-5:
KEY VERSE: Hebrews 12:11
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
Have you taken a child to the hospital for an injection before? Was the child laughing when the doctor or the nurse was preparing the syringe? What was the child doing? What was he saying? Was he not crying and shouting, “Carry me out of this place?” That is how discipline is. Through discipline, you are treating a sickness.
You are treating a bad habit; a corrupt habit; but it is painful. They say, “Stand up there;” you stand up and they begin to pour your sins on you. Bible says in 1 Timothy 5:20, “Them that sin rebuke before all, …” but you will not want to take that. Pride will come in; Satan will send some people to you to tell you that you have been ridiculed; that your good name has been tarnished.
They will remind you that the recording has even been posted on the internet. What does that mean? Are obituaries not on the internet? Would you prefer to have your obituary posted on the internet when you have gone to hell or that you receive godly rebuke in love and escape hell?
It is those who don’t understand that will read ulterior motives into such things, but to the righteous, it is a sign that God loves you. For Him to have your error revealed while you are alive, He really loves you. Bible says, “Afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness.” To which people? To everybody? No! Bible says, “to them that are exercised in it.”
It could be that you were even removed as a leader from Holiness Revival Movement and you went your own way. You have failed! If you had remained, who knows God’s plan for you? Is it not God that brought Nebuchadnezzar back to the throne? “Afterwards it worketh a peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby.”
Not everybody will take discipline and stay. Some will take and go; they will look for reasons. But there is no reason you can find on earth for the Bible says of Jesus in Isaiah 53:7, “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Do you have more righteousness than Him? He was humiliated and taken to the cross, but see the fruit that followed. If you too can patiently endure this chastisement, it shall profit you at the end.
Thought for the day: Discipline is part of the Christian life.
Song for the day: In my life, Lord, be glorified, be glorified. In my life, Lord, be glorified today
Bible reading for the day: Genesis 3-5; Matthew 2