“It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.”
Lamentations 3:27-28
I’ll never forget the day I was sentenced to prison for armed robbery. I was 19 years old, and as the judge read out my sentence of 17 years, my heart sank. “My life might as well be over,” I thought. I would sit alone in silence, indeed, as the Lamentations verse says.
Imagine how God’s people must have felt when the Babylonians took them into captivity for 70 years. But the prophet Jeremiah spoke to them of how the Lord was working all things together for good.
The Bible teaches that God disciplines those He loves (see Deuteronomy 8:5). When His children suffer hardship and affliction in this life, it’s because their heavenly Father uses it to conform them to the likeness of Jesus. “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten” (Hebrews 12:7, NKJV)? God’s fatherly discipline never seems pleasant at the time, but when we know it’s for our good, we can submit to it and say with the psalmist, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (119:71).
Imagine how God’s people must have felt when the Babylonians took them into captivity for 70 years. But the prophet Jeremiah spoke to them of how the Lord was working all things together for good.
The Bible teaches that God disciplines those He loves (see Deuteronomy 8:5). When His children suffer hardship and affliction in this life, it’s because their heavenly Father uses it to conform them to the likeness of Jesus. “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten” (Hebrews 12:7, NKJV)? God’s fatherly discipline never seems pleasant at the time, but when we know it’s for our good, we can submit to it and say with the psalmist, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (119:71).
Scripture Focus
Lamentations 3:22-33; Matthew 11:28-30
Insight
I often say prison was the best thing that ever happened to me. There I learned that Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Bible In A Year
- Exodus 15-16
- Psalm 33
- Mark 13
