Hebrews 12:5-7 - And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

Hebrews 12 as a whole is a challenge; a wonderful exhortation. Prior to these three verses the author of Hebrews challenges us to lay aside our sin, to run a race of endurance and points us to Jesus to gain not only our strength but to understand the example of how we should be running our race. The author of Hebrews exhorts us telling us we have not yet fought against sin to the point of bloodshed. but I know we have a High Priest who has, and we have His spirit living in us to strengthen us in any circumstance that comes our way. As we step into verse five, we see how we are identified as sons to the Living God. “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” I tend to lose sight of the fact that I’ve been adopted into the sonship of a heavenly Father who loves me and wants nothing more than to have a relationship with me. As I write this I can’t help but feel His Spirit testify to the truth of that fact and in the moment I pray that I allow the Spirit to continue to stir and kindle the fire and set me ablaze full of His spirit. It’s so easy even being in ministry to allow these thoughts to just flee. To just move on so quickly and not allow these truths to deeply penetrate our thoughts, to not allow these truths to saturate our spirit and thus overflow into our ministry. Looking into this verse and what it means to be a son of the Living God is something special and may come with a lot of trials and I know there will be more times of chastening but with all that in view, it’s so worth it to be considered a child of God, the creator of the heavens and the earth and I just pray that I can make my Heavenly Father proud. I pray that I don’t take the sacrifice His one and only Son made for granted anymore than I already have and I pray that I allow the truth of God’s word to permeate in my mind, to fill my thoughts and to saturate my Spirit.

Application: I will grab at the least one of my teammates and talk about what it truly means to be a Son of God, and the weight that it carries to be a Co-heir with Christ Jesus and afterwards pray that the God’s Spirit will continue to Stir within us and not allow this to be a fleeting thought