<\/p>\n
\u201cNow no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it\u201d (Hebrews 12:11).<\/p>\n
IT IS SOMETIMES THROUGH HARDSHIP THAT GOD GETS OUR ATTENTION AND PREPARES US TO LEARN FROM HIM. Not everyone has to experience hardship in order to become receptive to God, but many of us do. Many of us have to be \u201ctrained\u201d by God\u2019s chastening. And while this is not \u201cjoyful for the present,\u201d it later \u201cyields the peaceable fruit of righteousness,\u201d as the Hebrew writer said.<\/p>\n
Often it is our attitudes<\/em> that need adjusting before God\u2019s word can have much influence on us. If we\u2019re accustomed to thinking in worldly terms, we\u2019re simply not open to God\u2019s perspective. We have to learn the hard way that we\u2019ve not been taking enough of reality into consideration. Our minds have to be pried open by trials and tribulations, and sometimes we\u2019re not receptive even then.<\/p>\n One of our most hindering attitudes is the insistence that we already know what we need to know. We\u2019re not teachable because we see no need<\/em> to be taught. Rather than be taught, we\u2019d rather be the ones doing the teaching, and we expend the biggest portion of our energy trying to get the world around us to adjust itself to our thinking. We have no time to listen, as busy as we are.<\/p>\n And so, through the Psalmist, God says to us: \u201cBe still, and know that I am God\u201d (Psalm 46:10). We won\u2019t have the proper reverence for God until we\u2019ve gotten still, and stillness in God\u2019s school may not be something we\u2019re willing to accept. We may have to be forced to be still by the \u201cpreschool\u201d of pain and suffering.<\/p>\n But if we have trouble being still enough to hear God, we also have trouble being quiet. Rather than shutting our mouths and listening, we talk and talk and talk: informing God what we\u2019d like to have done, explaining to Him the uniqueness of our situation, and sometimes even calling into question His management of the universe. Is it any wonder we can\u2019t hear the truth? Is it any wonder God has to confine us to a corner and clamp His loving hand over our mouths, until we stop squirming and listen?<\/p>\n \u201cWhen God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted desires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship \u2014 when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us\u201d (Oswald Chambers).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n