Correction and Discipline

• Revelation 3:19 (NLT)

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What is the purpose of correction and discipline? Is it to develop self-discipline? Or rigid adherence to rules or laws? A thousand times - No! We cannot earn our place with God on our own - so self-discipline and adherence to rules will not bring life. We cannot depend on them.

I believe that correction and discipline, when given by God, are his way of purifying our heart. It is not that God just wants us to BEHAVE in a certain way, instead He wants us in our innermost being to become more and more in his image. As we become more like him we WILL behave more and more like Him.

As a parent, I wonder about that myself. Am I correcting my children so that their behavior improves or so that their heart is inclined more towards their Savior? God help me to be in tune with their intentions and to lead them to You - the One who will create in them clean hearts. Better behavior will follow, but it isn't my intention to raise children who believe that incredible self-discipline (or self-reliance) will get them what they want. We are all completely and utterly dependent on God.

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