Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.
– Job 5:17–18
Wow. What a picture of the good and loving discipline of God.
Job 5:17–18 teaches us that the discipline of the Lord is loving.
And when we hear the word discipline, many times we don’t think the words good and loving. But any parent who loves his or her children knows that discipline is good and loving, obviously, when it’s carried out rightly and justly and compassionately and wisely. But if I see one of my kids running out into the street where cars are driving and it is good for me to step in and discipline and say, no, you can’t do that, don’t do that. That’s not good for you. That’s just a tiny example of many ways that children and all of us as children of God need The good loving, always wise, always beneficial, always right, always just discipline of God.
Job 5 is just reflecting here what Hebrews 12 later says about not despising the discipline of God, knowing that it’s a blessing to be a child of God, to be loved by God the Father, in such a way that he will work in our lives to keep us from sin, to keep us from ourselves. And listen to Job 5:18. I love this for He wounds, but he binds up. He shatters, but his hands heal.
Job 5:17–18 teaches us we can trust the discipline of the Lord.
So when the discipline of God in your life feels wounding or shattering when it feels hard, know that God loves you and that He promises to bind up wounds. He promises to heal you with his hands. His discipline can be trusted. And so we pray, God, we ask you to discipline us. We need your loving, compassionate, wise molding of our lives. Make us more like Jesus, we pray.
Make us into the men and women you desire for us to be. You designed us to be to experience life to the full in you. We pray that you would help us to accept your discipline. And God, when we are wounded, we trust you will bind us up. When we are shattered, we trust your hands will heal. We praise you for your loving discipline in our lives, and we say in prayer together we receive it.
Prayer for the Jaunsari People
And oh God, even as we pray this as your children, we pray for the people in the world who have never the good news of your love in Christ, who are not your children, who are yet to be brought into our family. We pray specifically for the Jaunsari of India today, of Northern India, 111,000 of them, hardly any. If any followers of Jesus, God, we pray, bring the Jaunsari into our family. We pray into the family that is loved, cared for by you as sons and daughters. Through Jesus, we pray for the spread of the gospel to the Jaunsari of India. We pray all this according to your word in Job 5:17–18. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
