‹ Back

Psalm 94:12 "Blessed is the man whom thou dost chasten, O Lord, and whom thou dost teach out of thy law".

 

Some days, before I open the Bible for my daily verse, I tell God what I am feeling, thinking about, concerned over, or looking for guidance on. Today I simply said "I want to praise you!", and opened to this verse. While not an outright expression of praise to God, this verse acknowledges how God blesses us when He chastises us. Chastisements are meant to bring us back to a proper relationship with Him, where we find true happiness and respite. When, in misery, we realize this and turn back to Him, His law is there as a light to our path (Psalm 119:105), guiding us on the way.

 

I would not be in a place where I am opening the Bible every day and journaling about a verse, nor where my prayer for the day is simply that I want to praise God, if I had not been chastened. If God had allowed me to continue in my comfortable, what I thought of as blessed, life, I would have remained blind to the faults and weaknesses that were keeping me from a closer relationship with Him. I never would have come to this place of trust, consolation, and gratefulness that is the result of Him chastising me and then guiding me back. So this is a verse of praise - praise that our God loves us so much that He chastens us in order to lead us home.