Two Words God Didn't Mix Up

Take a moment to follow my problem below; each line begets additional truth as it gets more specific. I'll start generally:
- I have a tendency to neglect the power of God's word.
- I have a tendency to neglect the power of God in His word.
- I have a tendency to neglect the necessity of the power of God in His word.
- I have a tendency to neglect the necessary humility of petitioning the power of God when I read His word.

I have no ability to understand a single word of God's written word, unless He by His power and Spirit, makes it alive to my heart and mind. I (we) should bend the knee of our hearts before God in humility every time we open His word, that He would make it alive to us.

Along these same lines, I have a tendency to be selfish when I read His word. Especially when I don't take the time to realize my necessity to beseech His revealing of truth to my heart and mind. This selfishness can often result in searching scripture for what I want to see, rather than what it says.

Example: I'm selfishly discouraged so I look for passages that talk about me getting blessings rather than exposing my selfishness in passages that deal with discipline or sanctification. I'm sinfully judgmental so I look for passages that deal with another person's sin rather than passages that expose my own sin. I take those and I build a case, dodging any reference to dealing with my own sin.

All of that is to just bring up two beautiful passages that may often have been simply glanced over as truth without meditating further on their context and implication. In my own hurry of reading scripture, sometimes, I can miss out on an amazing depth, possibly because I see certain words like "love", "faith", "grace", etc and assume that I understand how they're being used, and to what extent they may be applied.

The following passages run deep with truth that I can't tap, but what I do know is: God didn't mix them up.

First:
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Paul explains the occurrence when, after having been given great revelations from God, he was given by God a "thorn in the flesh". Many commentators say that verse 7 is talking about a demon that was sent to ravage the church at Corinth. The purpose was to humble Paul.

Now that in itself is enough to dwell on and be amazed! God Himself allowed and ordained a demon to ravage His church SO THAT: Paul would remain humble. But that's not the non-mix-up.

Next passage:
Hebrews 12:5-11
The author explains and exhorts the reader that the discipline of the Lord is for our good. He treats us as sons, and the blessing of discipline from the Lord is that we share His holiness (v10).

Now here's what God didn't get wrong. Here's what God didn't say:
- In a time when God desires to humble us, when He is disciplining us, sometimes with much pain or trial, He doesn't say "My reproving / discipline is sufficient for you." Likewise, He doesn't say "It is for grace / peace that you endure."

Those would make perfect sense. When I endure something, I want it to be for a peaceful or blessed outcome. I'd readily and willingly endure through something knowing it was for peace that I'd endure, or for grace. And to hear a father say that His loving discipline of a trial or hard time is sufficient, I would understand that the trail is a sufficient experience. But that's not what God says. We need to rethink our self-focus when we are under God's sanctifying work on us, and think of Him.

Here's what He says in His word when we are under His humbling, under His disciplining:
2 Cor 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you"
Heb 12:7 "It is for discipline that you endure"

"Grace" and discipline" were not mixed up. We endure for His discipline. And the trail and humbling pains of what we are receiving IS His grace, which is fully sufficient for us.

How often I selfishly want that to be swapped! I want to endure for grace and peace! I expect Him to call sufficient: His disciplining and humbling! Your grace, God, is what is sufficient? Your painful (Heb 12:11) discipline is grace, Lord? Yes!

When Israel was being ravaged by poisonous serpents in the wilderness in Numbers 21, it was because they were rebellious and necessarily needed to be disciplined to gain the holiness that they were called to. They needed to repent! God sent serpents to show them the deadly result of the poison of their sin and how they needed His cleansing. The people cried out to Moses to beseech God. But what did they ask for? Did they ask for a way to be saved from the deadly serpents? No.

Numbers 21:7 "So the people came to Moses and said, 'We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.' "

Lord, remove this trial! Stop the discipline! This hurts! Take away the pain! They didn't ask for a salvation, they just wanted the serpents to be removed. They wanted the trial to be over. Instead, God offered a plan of faith that would save!

I often pray that. I often desire His discipline to stop. I don't see it as His sufficient grace. I don't see that the discipline is what I'm enduring FOR not through! God has other plans than just the temporal discipline. That's not the result; holiness is. He is pruning, sanctifying, building us for our good.

Heb 12:10 "He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness"

Wow! We share the holiness of God!

Why would I want Him to stop that process? If I am alive in Christ, being transformed into His image, would I deny the process of perfecting that God is desiring to do in me? In fact, that very process is what we often pray for. Would we then, when He faithfully and lovingly as a father brings that to us, say, "Wait! Stop! That doesn't feel good!"

How absurd.

I fail to trust my Lord, to my shame. I fail often, when I'm anxious, when I'm hesitant in gospel boldness, when I focus on myself more than Christ. But He, as a loving Father, prunes me for my good that I would share His holiness. That process IS His sufficient grace. The discipline is what I endure for, which in itself is His grace. The result is His holiness, which is grace abounding all the more.

Pray for me that I don't mix up the words of God. Pray for each other.