Yesterday’s post just showed me again why Trusting and Obeying is so important in my walk with God. He didn’t want me preparing any materials for the two new clients. He wanted instead for me to be a good listener to each of them and to His Holy Spirit. I want to counsel well and having substance in hand somehow makes “me” feel like I’m better equipped when God wants me to quit thinking like me and to listen to HIm instead.

One of the young men I meet with on Wednesday’s struggles with his value. If he doesn’t live out each day “sinless” he is a failure. This young man is also in the Saturday morning group where this Saturday we are working through the topic of God’s discipline as it relates to our own discipline measures we use or were used with us by our parents.

As I was journaling this morning I asked God how I could better communicate with this young man helping him to see his value to God? It was amazing that instantly I heard His Voice saying to help him see the difference between God’s discipline and that of man. We often call our discipline punishment and tie it to something we did that was bad. As we grow up we begin to think that anything we do “bad” makes us a bad person. When God punishes (disciplines) He wants us to learn from what we did. He uses discipline to grow us. That makes us a “learner” and not a “bad” person.

This young man has been believing the lies of Satan that he is bad. God wants me to help him see that he truly is a good learner who is in the middle God’s lessons. I’ve lived where this young man is and I’ve finally learned the truth God wants us to understand. Yes, we will battle our flesh, but God’s discipline helps us learn how to put our flesh in check so we can live in His Freedom and not in Satan’s bondage.