For Your Own Good

I remember when hearing this phrase caused a shiver to go up my spine. Anything that was intended “for my own good” usually was followed by things that weren’t so good. Discipline of any sort can give us pause.  The very idea of guidance implies we aren’t all that certain about our direction. We need help, but oftentimes, we don’t want the kind of help that is simply “for our own good.”

The Scripture in Isaiah 38:17 is helpful. It appears that Isaiah was having a hard time with some of God’s initiatives. In the end, Isaiah wrote:: “It was for my own good that I had such troubles. Because You love me very much, you did not let me die, but threw my sins far away.” Whew! That’s something worth pondering. 

Even though it never feels good at the time, our troubles are often our best teachers. The lessons we learn are not easily forgotten. In fact, most of us want to help others avoid the pitfalls from our own experience. As parents, we never want our children to suffer in any way. The problem is that being human means we get off the track pretty easily. We dupe ourselves into thinking everything we’re doing is all right until the world we’ve created comes crashing down around us. So, what happens then? That depends on you. 

You can tell God you’re not wild about His parenting skills, if you want. You can find someone in your current circle to blame, even though you know they are not to blame. Or you can echo something akin to what Isaiah said as he learned to be grateful for God’s instruction. He learned that God was really helping him out of an eternal jam, which was most likely much bigger than his earthly problems. No doubt, we’d all like to learn our lessons the first time, so we wouldn’t need to be reminded of the foolishness of our choices. We’d like to sweep things under the rug and hope no one notices. 

God’s desire for you is not to make you suffer for your poor choices., but to make you a happier, freer person. He wants your heart to be light and your burdens to be few.  His desire is for you to know He loves you more than anything and that He will always seek the best way to help you draw near to Him. You can be certain God wants the best for you forever. In fact, He always does things for your own good.