by Cathy Vinson

Recently I had the experience of observing my husband on a weight machine. It exercised him! In the midst of grimaces and contortions, I asked if he wasn't being dramatic on account of me. "No,"...and I could see the amount of weights the pin was under. He had made the choice, but the machine was exercising him. It wasn't a smooth process. He disliked it immensely. Why? Because it was unpleasant.

Then why do it? For the result of being "exercised thereby." "to those...having been exercised"...disciplined.

I presently see a discipline of God upon me and realize I am trying to get around it rather than "through it." Being preoccupied, busy are ways to try to squirm out from under and make it a weightless machine: one without friction, contradiction, effort, opposition, unpleasantness.

"All discipline seems (doxa-to be of the opinion of, reputed) to be unpleasant (lupe-grievous, pain to the mind or body, heaviness) at the
time" (12:11). As a weightless machine produces no pain, there is no gain, no "getting exercised."

"If you ENDURE discipline, God deals with you as with sons..." (12:7). This dealing by our Father means He is (pros) towards us + (phero) to bring or bear. He bears or brings tailor-made discipline to us His dearly beloved sons and daughters. He bears Himself to us through His disciplines. Dare we squirm out?

He intends it. "For whom the Lord loves He disciplines..." (vs 6). Intentional. Going "through" rather than around it, the exercise and pain
of it endured upon our tired muscles, promises to profit and to become useful and deliver or give back peaceable fruit (vss 10,11).

A friend exhorted to "invest such discipline well." Again, do we really want to bear the loss of squirming out?.

(Heb 12:11)