Do you ever feel like God's punishing you?

Do you ever feel like God's punishing you?

Perhaps you're struggling with your finances (career or business), health, relationships, purpose, or faith. And you're getting really tired of waiting on God?

I get it, we've all been there.

I call that being sick and tired of being sick and tired. Yup, that's tired!

I can guarantee you that the enemy (satan) will be busy accusing you of your sin. This is called condemnation.

This is a place where we can begin to lose hope in God and His biblical promises.

We start asking "God, what are you doing to me?"

Let me set the record straight. Jesus didn't come to condemn you. If you are a follower of Jesus, ALL of your sins are forgiven: past, present, and future. You no longer have a sin problem. But you may have a sinner problem. This is something God works out of us, it's called sanctification. It's a process He works in all of us.

>> Punishment vs. Discipline

God no longer punishes us as our sins deserve. (Psalm 103:10) This is good news! Punishment focuses on your past, what you've done wrong. You've already been forgiven!

So what's going on when you're going through life's hardships? Sometimes we experience the consequences of bad decisions, and other times we experience life's hardships by no fault of our own. All of us will experience trouble in our lives. That's the trouble with trouble, it's inevitable.

The scriptures tell us to endure hardship as God's discipline. (Hebrews 12:7)

God's discipline focuses on our future. Jesus says in John 15 that He is the vine, we are the branches, and God is the gardener. At times God prunes us so we will become more fruitful. This is His discipline.

A good thing!

If you've been asking God to make you more fruitful in different areas of your life, expect the gardener (God) to show up and prune you.

To punish you? No way! To grow you. To prosper you. God is a master gardener and He would NEVER do anything to harm the branches (that's us). We are attached to the vine, Jesus.

Develop a mental picture of a loving God pruning you so you can grow. Picture Him being very careful with His pruning. He doesn't want to hurt you, He wants to grow you.

This is His way of doing things. This is the Kingdom of God.

-Gerald

#gettingpruned #trustthegardener