Discipline Provides Protection
Prayer 365 // The Power of Discipline (Day 2)
More from this week:
Today's Scripture:
"Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. So endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined–and everyone undergoes discipline–then you are not legitimate." - Psalm 23:4 & Hebrews 12:7-8
Today's Devotional:
This past week I listened in on a teaching by one of my spiritual fathers, Bishop Eric Freeman as he briefly walked through the 23rd Psalm and I was inspired to share with you what I’m sharing today.
The way that you view God determines how you view and receive His correction. The Bible describes the most amazing ways, more than we have enough time to cover, but there are two ways we identify with God that I want you to become familiar with: as a Father and as a Shepherd. As a Father, He is our ultimate progenitor, all life starts with Him. As shepherd, He tends to us as His sheep.
Today, I want to focus on the latter, looking at God as a shepherd. David started out the 23rd Psalm by declaring “The Lord is my Shepherd.” This was significant for David because He was familiar with the responsibility of shepherding sheep as he did so for his father, fending off bears and lions for the sake of protecting the sheep. He was willing to risk his life for the sheep. In his relationship with God, he discovered that God was for him in a much greater way what he had been for those sheep. Think about it for a moment, God shepherding us as His sheep. There are billions of people around the world yet He cares for us, protects us and He’s willing to leave the multitude to locate one that’s lost.
For a moment I want to talk about how the shepherd protects His sheep. David said in verse 4 of the 23rd Psalm, "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” This is such a familiar text one that we say with such passion, but I believe the part that we overlook is this powerful metaphor of about the rod and the staff. David says, it brings him comfort. This sounds good to the ears and from the lips, but it feels differently in real life. You, see the rod and staff were tools used for correction and protection.
The Rod protects you from dangers both external and internal. External dangers are the dangers that are obvious things such how David protected his Father’s sheep from the lion and bear. For us as God’s sheep, this could be physical danger such as sickness, emotional danger such as toxic relationships, or even spiritual danger such as bad doctrine. There are things that God has protected you from that had it played out, it could’ve destroyed you, but He defended you from it with His rod. These are things that shouldn’t be overlooked but we should give God praise.
In addition to those external dangers, God also uses His rod to protect us from internal dangers. You see sheep had a habit of wandering off into dangerous places and the rod would be used to correct the sheep by striking it or even using the hook on the staff to the sheep back in. For us as people, our internal dangers are our thoughts, habits, tendencies, lust/desires, anger, pride, selfishness, fear, insecurities, and ignorance. If you thought those external dangers were bad, you should see where these internal ones could land us if not corrected. As His sheep, God doesn’t allow us to wander off or act unseemly, instead He uses his rod and staff to correct us which in reality protects us.
What I want you to do today is to reframe God’s correction as God’s protection. Instead of looking at God’s correcting you as an inconvenience, you must begin to see it as protecting me from the things I cannot see. This leaves no room to be offended when you’re corrected, instead you should thankful and grateful that He corrected you and protected you from the mess that you were headed into. God is your Father, but He’s also your shepherd. He is loves you and he’s protecting you.
Prayer Focus: Just as Elisha prayed for his servant that his eyes would be opened to see God’s protection around them, I pray that you would be able to see the things that God has protected you from in the past and the things He’s protecting you from today through the masterful use of His rod and staff. David said, “they comfort me.” I believe it takes maturity to look at the discipline of the Lord as an act of comfort.
I'm praying with you and for you,
Pastor Enrique Brooks
The way that you view God determines how you view and receive His correction. The Bible describes the most amazing ways, more than we have enough time to cover, but there are two ways we identify with God that I want you to become familiar with: as a Father and as a Shepherd. As a Father, He is our ultimate progenitor, all life starts with Him. As shepherd, He tends to us as His sheep.
Today, I want to focus on the latter, looking at God as a shepherd. David started out the 23rd Psalm by declaring “The Lord is my Shepherd.” This was significant for David because He was familiar with the responsibility of shepherding sheep as he did so for his father, fending off bears and lions for the sake of protecting the sheep. He was willing to risk his life for the sheep. In his relationship with God, he discovered that God was for him in a much greater way what he had been for those sheep. Think about it for a moment, God shepherding us as His sheep. There are billions of people around the world yet He cares for us, protects us and He’s willing to leave the multitude to locate one that’s lost.
For a moment I want to talk about how the shepherd protects His sheep. David said in verse 4 of the 23rd Psalm, "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” This is such a familiar text one that we say with such passion, but I believe the part that we overlook is this powerful metaphor of about the rod and the staff. David says, it brings him comfort. This sounds good to the ears and from the lips, but it feels differently in real life. You, see the rod and staff were tools used for correction and protection.
The Rod protects you from dangers both external and internal. External dangers are the dangers that are obvious things such how David protected his Father’s sheep from the lion and bear. For us as God’s sheep, this could be physical danger such as sickness, emotional danger such as toxic relationships, or even spiritual danger such as bad doctrine. There are things that God has protected you from that had it played out, it could’ve destroyed you, but He defended you from it with His rod. These are things that shouldn’t be overlooked but we should give God praise.
In addition to those external dangers, God also uses His rod to protect us from internal dangers. You see sheep had a habit of wandering off into dangerous places and the rod would be used to correct the sheep by striking it or even using the hook on the staff to the sheep back in. For us as people, our internal dangers are our thoughts, habits, tendencies, lust/desires, anger, pride, selfishness, fear, insecurities, and ignorance. If you thought those external dangers were bad, you should see where these internal ones could land us if not corrected. As His sheep, God doesn’t allow us to wander off or act unseemly, instead He uses his rod and staff to correct us which in reality protects us.
What I want you to do today is to reframe God’s correction as God’s protection. Instead of looking at God’s correcting you as an inconvenience, you must begin to see it as protecting me from the things I cannot see. This leaves no room to be offended when you’re corrected, instead you should thankful and grateful that He corrected you and protected you from the mess that you were headed into. God is your Father, but He’s also your shepherd. He is loves you and he’s protecting you.
Prayer Focus: Just as Elisha prayed for his servant that his eyes would be opened to see God’s protection around them, I pray that you would be able to see the things that God has protected you from in the past and the things He’s protecting you from today through the masterful use of His rod and staff. David said, “they comfort me.” I believe it takes maturity to look at the discipline of the Lord as an act of comfort.
I'm praying with you and for you,
Pastor Enrique Brooks
Did you know that Thryve Church prays together 365 days a year? Join us Monday-Friday at 6:30am & Saturdays at 8am for "Prayer at the Altar" by dialing 339- 207-7471 and then join us Sundays at 11am for Worship Service! Learn More