The Lord is fully aware of how limited and futile the thoughts of mankind are, so He helps us by punishing us. This makes us follow His paths, and gives us respite from our enemies while God traps them and destroys them. The Lord will not forsake His people, for they are His prize.

   Endure what you suffer as being a father's punishment; because your suffering shows that God is treating you as His sons. Was there ever a son who was not punished by his father? Our human fathers punished us for a short time, as it seemed right to them. But God does it for our own good, so that we may share His holiness. When we are punished, it seems to us at the time something to make us sad, not glad. Later, however, those who have been disciplined by such punishment reap the peaceful reward of a righteous life.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies Himself, just as He is pure.

   Whoever is a child of God does not continue to sin, because God's very nature is in him; and because God is his Father, he cannot continue to sin. Here is the clear difference between God's children and the devil's children: anyone who does not do what is right, or does not love his brother, is not God's child.

   Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's sons. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you a slave and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's sons, and by the Spirit's power we cry to God, "Father! My Father!" God's Spirit joins Himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Since we are His children, we will possess the blessings He keeps for His people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for Him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share His glory.

Taken from Psa. 94, Heb. 12, I Jn. 3, Rom. 8, The Living Bible, Today's English Version
and The New American Standard. For free Lifescope book, write to Box 1575,
Carlsbad, NM 88221. Please send $1.00 for postage and handling.