Day 4: Discipline and restraint
[Joseph's brothers] said to one another, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come on us” (Genesis 42:21).
Our God and our Father from whom the whole family in heaven and earth derives its name, thank You for Your great and tender mercies—Your compassions—renewed day by day. You are so good, and You offer us mercy in spite of our failings.
O God we bow in humble amazement as we look at how You not only forgive our faults, but You work things out to bring grace and redemption and to accomplish Your great purpose. Nowhere is this more evident than with the sons of Jacob. Wild, undisciplined, and unrestrained, they increasingly gave way to their basest behaviors and worst impulses.
Sinking ever further after their vicious scheme for revenge in Shechem (Genesis 34), they plumbed the depths of family dysfunction. And finally, brimming with jealousy, envy, anger, and hatred, they descended into murderous intent, and a ruthless, callous, bargain that brought them profit and their brother Joseph slavery.
Joseph was later to tell them, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…” But not before the enormous toll on the family—the years of slavery and suffering for Joseph—the heartbreak of their father who was later to tell Pharaoh, “My years have been few and difficult…” (Genesis 47:9)—the brothers’ own guilt and torment.
O God, You can redeem anything, but You desire to spare us the suffering we cause ourselves and others for want of discipline and restraint. The psalmist captures Your heart for Your people as You describe the hardships they would be spared, and the benefits they would enjoy “If My people would only listen to Me… would only follow My ways…” (Psalm 81:13-16).
The Lord Jesus lifted a similar lament over Jerusalem, “…How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing" (Matthew 23:37).
Father, it is often quite easy for us to see degeneration around us, but harder to see the subtle compromises, compounding misdeeds, and troublesome habits in our own lives—that left unchecked, draw us into a treacherous slide. Help us to be honest in confronting and confessing our sins, and in seeking to display the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
We pray for our families, and in particular our children, and the young people we influence. Help us to train them in such a way that they would not freefall into depravity and difficulty for want of discipline and restraint. Help us to be for them models of sound judgment, self-governance, and self-control.
Oh Father, so much around us is dangerous, and deceptive and damaging. We look for Your deliverance, Lord!
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