Abide under the Father’s training until you die

Hebrews 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? In verse 5, the author said that they had forgotten the exhortation that was addressed to them as sons from Prov. 3, where they were warned not to take lightly the loving child-training from the Lord. In verse 7, he encouraged them further that the purpose of enduring, the word literally means to abide under, the purpose of abiding under the hardships of life is to receive the training of their heavenly Father.  This training of the Father was first introduced back in chapter 5:14. “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” The word for training is different. It literally means to be stripped naked by the practice of suffering so that you can see what’s in you, both good and evil. That practice came from God, the Father, in love, so you could grow up and mature. That’s the same idea here in 12:7. The Father is training His children to mature them or grow them up through suffering.  This isn’t a new concept in Hebrews. How did Jesus learn obedience? Heb. 5:9 indicated it was through the things which He suffered. Two times in Luke 2, it was said of Jesus, in His childhood, He grew in wisdom and grace. He too had to be disciplined by His Father through suffering as a child so He could mature and grow up, as we say. This, said the author, is the purpose of endurance. It is so we might grow up. So the encouragement we glean from verse 7 today is that our Father in heaven has already planned out our days. Like a good and loving Father, He deals with us as His children and is implementing His child-rearing philosophy, namely, training us through hardships so we can grow up into the maturity of Christ. I believe the goal of that training is that we will glorify Him by living to love with Jesus. Have you embraced our Father’s child-training method? Have you taken it lightly, or have you considered yourself loved and privileged to have such a loving Father? If you have received it well, like Jesus did, you will abide under it; you will, to the end of your life, continue to draw near to Him through Jesus Christ, our high priest, so you can receive the mercy and grace necessary to grow up into the image of the Son of God. As you walk with Jesus through this training process, you will grow in love for Him and with Him.