Hebrews 12:6 - For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.

In the churches I’ve been a part of, the gospel is more or less this: Believe in Jesus and you’re saved into heaven at death. The idea of growth/sanctification is kind of on offer but not emphasized much.

If this is the case, is it possible we’ve rarely/never considered that some of the pain and discomfort we experience in life may be because God is disciplining us for living incorrectly - that we violate his ways and break his commands and doing so breaks us.

In the modern theory of God, once you’re saved, God is never displeased with you ever again. But God chose the Israelites the same way he chose us and he warned them:

Leviticus 26:14–16 - “But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache

Is part of the anxiety/depression epidemic today due to disobeying God? Is he disciplining us to compel us and win us back to him? May we lovingly fear him as a good Father!

Deuteronomy 14:1-2 - You are the sons of the Lord your God… you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

May we know this deeply in our hearts - we are his possession and his children he lovingly disciplines.