A Disciple In Training

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding" Proverbs 3:13)

A disciple is one who is in training. Being a disciple of Christ brings us to the day-by-day realities of such terms as discipline, rebuke, correction, hardship. Those are not pleasant words.

In times of testing and hardship, I have heard Christians cry in their discouragement, "How can I believe that God loves me?" The fact is, God loves us to such a degree that He will use every necessary means to mature us until reach "unity of the faith" and attain "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).

A critic may cringe and charge that God is breaking our spirits, that we will be worth nothing as a result. Oh, No! That is NOT true. What God plans is to bring us into accord with the wisdom and power and holiness that flow eternally from His throne.

How good it would be if we could learn that God is easy to live with. He may sometimes chasten us, it is true, but even this He does with a smile.

~A. W. Tozer~

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Only a Rehearsal for Heaven

"For I reckon that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed" (Romans 8:18)

God's loving motive [in discipline] is to bring us into total harmony with Himself so that moral power and holy usefulness become ours in this world and in the world to come.

My mind returns frequently to some of the old Christian saints who often prayed in their faith, "O God, we know this world is only a dressing room for the heaven to come!" They were very close to the truth in their vision of what God has planned for His children.

In summary: Down here the orchestra merely rehearses; over there we will give the concert. Here, we ready our garments of righteousness; over there we will wear them at the wedding of the Lamb.

God's richest blessings often require not only sacrifice, suffering and conflict, but long delay and patient waiting. But the blessing grows with the delay. The interest gathers with the extended time, and God's ratio is always compound interest.

~A. W. Tozer~