Job 5:17-19
17 “But consider the joy of those corrected by God!
Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin.
18 For though he wounds, he also bandages.
He strikes, but his hands also heal.
19 From six disasters he will rescue you;
even in the seventh, he will keep you from evil.
Realize that you are blessed.
God’s discipline can be harsh, but when it gets our attention and we turn away from whatever it is that forced His hand, the rewards are great. It is in the realization of His love for us that the discipline is becomes effective, even welcome. It helps us realize that we are blessed.
When we put something between ourselves and God, preventing the close relationship He wants to have with us, we need to give it up. Sometimes, when we don’t do it on our own, God gets tired of waiting for us to act. He rains down His discipline on us until we give Him our full attention. Until we ask for His help in the form of relief from whatever stress He’s placed upon us. Once convicted, we must repent asking for His forgiveness, and we need to turn away from the wrong we are doing. Then we can experience the rewards He has in store for us and truly realize that we are blessed.
A while back, my husband and I bought a business. We leveraged almost everything we had to make the purchase and then found out that the income initially projected just wasn’t there. Oh ya, and we bought it just before the big economic melt down, too. Our timing wasn’t the only thing off though. Our whole plan was off, right from the start. You see, our plans didn’t include God. We didn’t pray about it, we didn’t’ seek confirmation that this was the right business for us, or the right time in our lives. We didn’t even consider how or if we could recover from a catastrophic failure, but we soon got the opportunity to find out. We didn't see the blessings we already had.
Well, everything that could happen did. We were robbed, someone drove through the front door, equipment failed, and sales crashed. I believe all of this was God’s way of helping us decide to sell the business, which we did at a considerable loss. The great thing is that we recovered to experience life in a renewed way. We are out from under that burden and closer to God, and closer to each other than we have been in years. We finally realized that were were blessed.
Having the business was not good for us, it separated us from God, but He got our attention by disciplining us harshly for going down that road without Him. But the rewards have been great. We have been blessed with a stronger faith, a closer marriage and we’re in much better financial shape than we’ve been in for quite some time.
God is good. Don’t leave Him out of your plan but, instead, ask Him what He has planned for you. I guarantee you that His plan will always be what’s best.
Realize that you are blessed.
