Going Deeper

‘Discipline me, Lord, but only in due measure – not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing’ (Jeremiah 10:24).

As a father I sometimes have to discipline my children. It’s not a responsibility that provokes happiness (in them or me), but the fact that I do it is evidence that I love them. If I did not care about their lives and the people they are becoming then I would have no reason to discipline them. It is because I want the best for them that I intervene when they are going wrong. Needless to say, it is difficult for them to appreciate this at the time.

Like Jeremiah, we are wise to say, ‘Discipline me, Lord’. Unless we have the crazy notion that we are already perfect, or the equally ludicrous belief that we are beyond God’s help, then it’s natural to seek the discipline of our heavenly Father. Why not pause now and pray that simple yet daring prayer…

This is not an easy prayer to pray because many of us have memories of discipline that has been dealt out to us in anger. That so-called discipline has been more about someone expressing their frustration than helping us to grow. And it has probably done more harm than good. Even Jeremiah was haunted by this thought and when he asked God to discipline him he added the words, ‘but only in due measure – not in your anger’.