Topic: A Paradox Of Healing [Tuesday April 5, 2016]
Text: Job 5:17-27
Key Verse: “For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.” (Job 5:18).
When we understand the purpose of God in many of the seemingly unpleasant things we experience in life, we will better appreciate Him and be more rightly disposed to those things. There are quite a number of things that look negative and contradictory on the surface, but we ultimately note God’s providence and purpose in them.
Take for instance, the painful surgery an ailing patient had to be subjected to in order to be made whole. Usually, surgery is not a pleasurable experience, yet the pain is necessary to make for the eventual healing and health of the person. The same is true when it comes to chastisement. Nobody really enjoys it but it serves to make us better. Eliphaz may have gotten it wrong with regards to Job in our text, but the underlying truth in the principle he revealed here is universal.
God corrects to make us better and this is because of His love for us. When we stray as His children, He does not leave us to wander away unchecked. As the Good Shepherd, He makes use of His chastening rod to bring us back. Chastisement is different from punishment. Punishment only looks back at past offences and makes one pay for wrongs done. Chastisement, on the other hand, looks to the future. What it aims at is making us better.
When God wounds us with His rod of correction, it is to heal us. This is why our attitude to chastisement should be that of gratitude. The ultimate goal is heaven. Whatever God needs to cut off from our lives so that we can be fit for heaven will be necessary. We should therefore, take to the counsel of the Scripture to count it joy when God corrects us. Though He may seem to wound us when we stray, it is to heal and make us better vessels.
Thought for the day: When God chastens, it is for our ultimate good.
Bible Reading in one Year: John 16-18
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
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