“Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a level path because of my foes.”
—Psalm 27:11

If you’re anything like me, you want God to teach and train you. You want to follow the straight-and- narrow path that leads to His heart. But do you realize that discipline is one of the tools HaShem uses to teach and train us?

Proverbs 3:12 tells us that “whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” The writer of Hebrews said the same thing, “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” (Heb. 12:6). Because of His love for us, the Lord uses discipline to teach us His way, nurture us, and protect us.

Of course, our Father uses many means to teach us. He teaches us through His Spirit. He teaches us through His Word. He teaches us through circumstances, people, and suffering. Hebrews 5:8 says of Jesus, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” Every method God uses to teach us is for the same purpose—so that we will be transformed. Even Yeshua continued to grow in strength and wisdom (Luke 2:40).

The more we’re taught and the more we yield to His instruction, the deeper we’ll enter into the essence of Yeshua. This is why Father’s discipline should be understood and received as a blessing. He disciplines every true child of His so He can release His fullness and goodness into our lives. God’s discipline brings us into His blessing.

Father God, I cry out to You today. Teach me, O God, and lead me in Your way. Father God, discipline and nurture me. Teach me by Your Spirit and Your Word, and bring into my life whatever I need to follow the level path that leads straight into Your heart, Abba. Straight into Your bosom.

Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider, Rivers of Divine Truth (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2021), Used by permission.