Do you ever find yourself repeating the same things over and over to your children? When my kids were little, I often said “No” more times than I could count. Another favorite was “don’t touch.” These days, a phrase I often resort to is “because I said so.”

My kids don’t like that phrase, because it means the conversation is over. They view it as a cop-out, as a reason that’s not actually a reason. I figure one day, they’ll have kids of their own and then they’ll understand why I say it. Similarly, God doesn’t always tell us why he is allowing certain circumstances to occur in our lives. Here are three reasons not to despise the Lord’s discipline.

1. God’s discipline means he is at work in the lives of his children.

These conversations I have with my children about rules and consequences, discipline and authority, often highlight for me my own heart and my own response to the way God works in my life. In truth, I find myself resistant to God’s training and discipline. I find myself saying what my kids often say, “It’s not fair.” When hardships, trials, disappointments, and challenges come my way, I see them as things to avoid or resist or to find my way around. Other times, I look at hardships and challenges in my life as punishment for something I’ve done wrong. Perhaps I wasn’t good enough at something and God is disappointed with me.

Seldom do I pause to consider, “What might God be doing here? What might he want me to learn? How is he using this situation to make me more like Christ?”

The writer to the Hebrews wrote a letter to Jewish believers exhorting them to persevere and run their race of faith with endurance. He taught them that Christ was greater than Moses, angels, and priests. He pointed them to Christ’s sufferings for their sake and urged them to look to him in the face of their own trials and sufferings.

In chapter 11, we read about the hall of faith—a list of saints who lived by faith, most of whom did not see their reward in this life. Then, in chapter 12, the writer encouraged Jewish believers not to grow weary in their own race of faith. He wrote about God’s discipline and encouraged them to cast aside their sin and stay in the race, remembering the gospel and what Jesus did for them. Because it’s easy to grow weary, he reminded these Jewish believers of who they were as children of God.

Quoting Proverbs 3:11-12, the author wrote:

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

     nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

     and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Heb. 12:5-6; see also Prov. 3:11-12)

As believers, sometimes we take God’s discipline lightly. We don’t take it seriously. We dismiss it or overlook it. In doing so, we make light of God. We shrug our shoulders at sin as though it’s not that big of a deal. But it is a big deal, such a big deal that Jesus came to die for our sins.

Other times, we may grow weary of the Lord’s discipline. We may respond with despair. We might fret or worry about it. We may give up the fight in our battle against sin and think it’s just too hard.

We may come to the point where we despise the Lord’s discipline in our lives, and in so doing we miss out on the good things God is doing in and through it. The writer to the Hebrews cautions us against these responses. Instead, we need to look at the Lord’s discipline as a good thing.