After the Woodshed

For those of you men who are older I’m sure you remember what it was like when your father said, “meet me in the woodshed.” You knew immediately that it was not to stack wood because you had just disobeyed your dad in some way and the “board of education” was about to be applied to “the seat of knowledge”. 

God has a “woodshed”, too. If you are a true child of God, you have been there (Hebrews 12:6). Hebrews 12 also tells us that no discipline is pleasant at the time, but that afterward it produces the “peaceable fruit of righteousness”. As the old saying goes, “God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way.” 

We really need to forsake this idea of God as a doting grandfather who spoils His grandchildren and winks at their sin. Our God is a holy God! And although He loves us dearly, He hates our sin with an intense hatred.  

Maybe you are in the Lord’s “woodshed” right now. Or maybe you are just on the other side of the Lord’s discipline, and you are still smarting from your heavenly “spanking”. In either case, I have a good word or two for you from your heavenly Father. Psalm 103:9 says, “He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever.” God never holds a grudge! 

However, God DOES get angry with His children when they stubbornly disobey Him. 1 Corinthians 11:32 says, “When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.” It is God’s grace that leads Him to discipline us; it is also His grace that leads Him to comfort us after we are disciplined. Isaiah 12:1 says, “I will praise you, O LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.” 

Men, let’s be sure to make every effort to live pleasing to our Lord. But let’s also remember that when we sin and we are disciplined, that 1) God always does it because He loves us and 2) His discipline is always followed by His comfort and reassurance of that love.