Godly Correction

UV 719/10,000 Godly Correction “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.” Job 5 v 17 When God smiles at us, it is day. When He frowns, it is night. God led the ancient Israelites through the terrible desert as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. For us it means that the radiance of God’s face shining upon us is so blinding that He needs to protect us with a covering or a cloud. Each of us has a cloud of blessings over us all the time to shield us from the radiance of His face. It protects us from the intensity of the heat of His glorious presence. This explains why St Paul was blinded in the physical by the spiritual vision he saw. We can reach out into the cloud of God’s presence and draw our day’ s need of His blessings- a different kind of cloud computing. He is a pillar of fire by night- this implies that when He withdraws His favour for a time, when we are in a time of adversity He does not desert us. He gives us warmth and divine guidance on the path we should follow. He illuminates our lives with a living testimony during these dark times. In our desert times, when the Lord chastises us or corrects us, we should not regard ourselves as cursed or as forsaken by God. If we do so, we are despising the chastening of the Almighty. It is His sovereign will and decision to surgically correct certain aspects of our character by allowing some events that are not so pleasant from a purely human perspective. Just as we respect the right of our parents to correct us, we need to respect and accept His will and rejoice that it is a sure sign that He loves us as a Father and therefore, He corrects us as our earthly fathers did when we erred wantonly. The children that are often corrected by their parents turn out to be better off when they are older. Even the parents who correct their children are better loved at the end of the day. Our faithful response in such times is to rejoice that we have been chosen to be loved and corrected by God and not hated and ignored. As the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 119, “ It is good that I was chastised that I might learn His holy will.” Sometimes, the Lord chastises us so that we experience a course correction. Sometimes, He corrects us so that we can get rid of a hidden sin and sometimes to cauterize a wilful sin from our souls. It is to remove the dross or impurities that have crept in and make us like gold that is drawn out of the furnace of afflictions. No correction through affliction or suffering is pleasant at the time it happens but in due course, we will eat the peaceful fruit of righteousness or blessedness on account of it. It disciplines us and the discipline produces victory at the end of the day. When He frowns, it is an indication that He does not want us to loose the crown of life. From my childhood, I have often felt the chastisement of the Lord and these periods of chastisement were the defining moments of my life, that defined my destiny and refined my character and soul. God knows and I know that He still got a lot of work to do in me but we have come a long way. Prateep V Philip *The colour code- every day from the past week, I have given a different colour shade to the UV quote, matching the seven colours of the rainbow to indicate different types of teachings and blessings that the Lord reserves for each day of our lives.