Harnessing the Power of God’s Discipline
📖 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it. — Hebrews 12:11 BSB
God often works through paradoxes—strength through weakness, life through death, peace through surrender. Today’s devotional reminds me that power is not something we find; it’s something produced. The illustration of electrical energy being generated through friction captures a truth we often resist: the spiritual power to endure, to rise above, to trust in Christ's sufficiency is formed through the pressures of life.
When I look back, the seasons of greatest transformation in my walk with Christ were not times of ease, but of struggle. I used to think trials were something to escape, that comfort was the sign of God’s favor. But discipline—this refining friction of trials—is not God’s rejection; it is His love shaping me to bear the righteousness and peace He has already given me in Christ.
Discipline doesn’t change my standing before God. I am fully accepted in Christ. But it does refine how I walk in that reality. The pressure of difficulty exposes what I’ve been relying on—whether it’s my own strength, the approval of others, or a false sense of security in circumstances. The friction of trials pushes me toward yielding to the only true power: Christ’s life in me.
And yet, how easily I resist. I want the peace, but I hesitate at the training. I want to trust, but I find myself bracing against the very pressures designed to press me deeper into His life. But I see it now—how He is not asking me to create endurance on my own but to yield to the endurance He has already placed within me. Every trial, every tension, every difficulty is not meant to drain me but to teach me to draw from His inexhaustible supply.
I don’t want to waste these moments by trying to escape them. Lord, You are the source of my life. I trust You in this moment, in every pressure You allow, knowing that You are working something eternal in me. I choose to yield to Your discipline, not as a burden to bear, but as a gift that brings me deeper into the righteousness and peace You have already provided.
📸 Photo credit: Unsplash
✍️ Devotional excerpt from Day by Day by Grace