Prompting or Punishment?

I have been reading about the children of Israel, and the judgments that God had to inflict on them.  Most of them seemed pretty harsh, but they just would not listen!  They would come about and begin to obey Him again, but before you know it, they were right back in sin.  So finally He let them be led away captive for 70 years!

This morning I read an article by Dr. Paul Chappell entitled Requiring Punishment.
Part of the article said,

"Isaiah gives us a fascinating insight into God’s chastisement of His children. “For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen” (Isaiah 28:27-28).
Delicate plants like fitches—a herb used for seasoning food—were not threshed because the heavy tool would crush them. But the thicker grains used for making bread went under the tribulum [a threshing instrument]. When our hearts are soft and we quickly listen to God’s Word, we do not require judgment to remind us to do right. When our hearts are hard and our ears refuse to listen, God is able to get our attention, though we will certainly not find that process enjoyable. God calibrates our circumstances based on what is required to get us to obey.
If we are responsive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the instruction of Scripture, we will save ourselves much heartache."

This is so true!  When our hearts are ready to listen, it only takes a small bit of prompting by the Holy Spirit to make a change.  That still, small voice can only be heard when we are listening.  I know we've all seen that in our children as well.  Some children listen better than others, and when they don't, we often need to administer a more stern punishment.

Stay in the Word of God daily, and ask him to show you something from what you read.  Be searching as you read.  Read for understanding.  Find a quiet place and block out everything around you.  Early in the morning before everyone else gets up is best for me, and I like to write down in a notebook the verses that speak to me.  Don't have your cell phone or other distractions near.
I do keep a sheet of paper handy because there is always something popping into my mind that I need to do that day, so I just jot it down rather than dwelling on it.  I think this is more distracting for women, because we don't have the focus men have.  Our minds are constantly thinking of the cares of the day, and it can be a hindrance when we are concentrating on something the devil would rather us not.

So get in your Bible early!
Before it is "too late" and things start needing to be tended to and the phone starts ringing!

sMiLeS,