#DailyDevotion Do You Thank God When He Corrects You?
Psalm 94 12Blessed is the man whom You, O LORD, correct and teach from Your Word, 13to give him rest after a time of trouble, while a pit is dug for the wicked. 14The LORD doesn’t reject His people or forsake His own. 15The decisions of judges will again become just, and all whose heart is right will pursue justice.
We often don’t feel blessed when the LORD corrects and teaches us from His Word, particularly when He uses another fallen human being to do it. Yet we should consider ourselves blessed when the LORD sends a pastor or a friend or even sometimes an enemy to point out our sin from God’s Word to correct us. If we listen and turn from our sin when the LORD turns us to Him we will gain some rest from our troubles (namely because we are no longer exacerbating them by our sin).
Those who refuse to listen and consider the LORD’s correction by others a curse, a pit is being dug for them. They will die in their sins and enter the fiery pit which has been dug to torment angels who have rebelled and they shall join them in their torment.
It is written in Hebrews 13 the LORD never leaves us or forsakes us. At the end of Matthew He tells us He is with us until the end of the ages. When we are disciplined by Him it is not His wrath but His love correcting us so we don’t join the wicked, i.e. those who reject His mercy and grace. In the world to come the decisions of judges will be just again—though I don’t think we’ll need judges anymore then.
16Will anyone rise against the wicked in my behalf? Will anyone stand by me against those who do wrong? 17If the LORD hadn’t helped me, I soon would have gone down to silence. 18 When I think my foot is slipping, Your mercy, O LORD, holds me up. 19When there’s much troubling me inwardly, Your comforts delight me.
We may well ask this question at times when others trouble us. These words are words Christ Himself probably prayed in the Garden while waiting to go to the cross. The answer He got from the Father was no. He must suffer and die for us. Yet the LORD, the Father helped Him. He sent angels to comfort him. Jesus committed His spirit to the Father and the Father raised Him from the dead on the third day. He may have felt His foot slipping but His Father’s mercy held Him up and the Father’s comfort delighted Him.
As we put our trust in Christ Jesus, when we are joined to Him through baptism and faith, we can be certain the LORD will help us also. His mercy will hold us up and His comfort will delight us. He will get us through the times we ourselves, of our own strength and will could not. Turn to the LORD in your days of trouble and He will be there for you with the comfort He, Himself received when He walked among us. Don’t turn to created things or people to comfort you. If they are needed, He sends them. When He sends them, accept their help and comfort with all graciousness and gratefulness.
Merciful God and Father, You promise to never to forsake us even when we fall and You have to correct us. You promise to give us comfort and strength in our day of need when we have nothing of ourselves to depend or lean upon. Give us Your Holy Spirit that we may put our hope in these promises and be comforted by them in the day of trouble. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.