10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Both parental discipline and God’s discipline have a purpose, and we don’t necessarily like either one. The difference between our parents and God is simple: perspective. Parents often do their best, but their best is shaped by their own upbringing. If they were raised by human beings, and I think we all were, then the discipline we experienced was imperfect. They were parenting the best they could, but they were also raised by humans. I could trace this all the way back to Adam & Eve, but you get the point. Even the best parents are still human, with all the limitations of being human. God has the ability to know us each individually and tailor a plan of discipline that takes into account our personality, our history and our future. He is able to discipline us in such a way that it prepares us for our future struggles, building into us the resilience that we will need in order to thrive in the future battle. God is working now in our lives so as to give us all the equipment to survive a future we don’t even know yet. Ultimately, God is shaping us for eternity. His goal is to make us like Him, holy and pure. Just as parents tried to build character into us, some for the good and some for the not-so-good, God is working on us. He wants us to become more and more like Him. The more time we spend with Him, the more He has the opportunity to show us what He is like, and we get to practice being like Him. We get to see love in action, and then we know what love looks like and can act like He acts. This is not merely an external play-acting. It is an adoption of character that takes place as we choose to be changed by His presence with us. Kids choose to copy or rebel against their parent’s examples. We can do the same with God.
The Arnold Journey 