In Touch - May 24, 2005

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2005 May 24

In Touch Daily Devotional
by Dr. Charles Stanley

Tuesday May 24, 2005

How to Avoid Divine Discipline

1 Corinthians 11:27-32

The power of sin has been broken in our life, but for various reasons, we do sometimes choose to transgress God’s law. Sin leads us away from the Lord and hinders His transforming work in us. The Father employs divine discipline to halt the progress of sinful behavior before we are destroyed. However, it is possible to avoid God’s reproof, though not in the sense that we can escape correction once it begins. Rather, we can confess sins before they require His forceful intervention.

Paul tells the Corinthians to examine their hearts before they accept the Lord’s Supper.

We can adopt the same practice of self-examination in our daily life by asking God where we harbor wrong attitudes or unconfessed sin. If we desire to mature in our faith, we will honestly confront the problem areas He reveals. In other words, we offer genuine confession by agreeing with God that our sin is wrong and out of character for a child of His. The next step is to repent, which means our attitude toward our former behavior is reversed. Our conduct changes to avoid falling back into old sin patterns.

The only way to avoid divine discipline is to promptly deal with the sin that God brings to mind. While He is slow to anger, His patience is not unlimited. If we know we are sinning and yet delay confession, we are inviting His discipline. But if we are honest to confess and repent of our sin, He restores us and foregoes correction. As long as we walk in obedience to God, we can avoid His hand of correction.

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