April 20th, 2026 Devotional
April 20
Hebrews 12:7-13
“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined – and everyone undergoes discipline – then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us fo rour good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 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. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
God is caring. He wants us to grow and change to be good people. There are consequences to our actions because God says so, and they are unavoidable. That doesn’t mean He isn’t all-loving and full of forgiveness, He is. However, if a parent were to never discipline their child and let them run amok, would they not turn out to be greedy, selfish children? We have the free will to choose what we do with our lives; the way that God interferes is indescribable, but sometimes things happen for a reason and create a long-term positive change in the way we react. One sad moment could mean that we know how to help and respond to the same thing a friend goes through years later, or it could mean that we are less stressed and sad the next time it happens because we have learned the lesson that everything here on Earth is temporary. God can’t make us choose to be a certain way, but His actions coincide with ours. He will make our paths straight. He also uses discipline to prepare us for hard times, strengthening us so that we may be delivered from evil, and say no to the things that are bad for us.
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