What Does God's Discipline Have to do with Forgiveness?

Renee Fisher

Devotional Diva
Updated Jan 26, 2018
What Does God's Discipline Have to do with Forgiveness?
The forgiveness process can be long. It can be short. Sometimes it's something we did. Sometimes it's something others did. But we all deal with it.

"One of my most favorite Bible chapters is John 15, and I thought that's a great picture for God saying, 'If I'm pruning you, maybe it's because I want you to be more fruitful.' Sometimes He prunes us because we need to be disciplined, or we need to go through that process of getting rid of something that is hindering us. Unforgiveness is a hindering towards being grafted and rooted and finding our healing in God. Sometimes, if we go through that discipline process, and then maybe the situation leaves, we realize, 'Oh, okay, maybe it was my choices,' or, 'Okay. Hello. Yeah, I made a bad decision, but I'm walking in freedom now.'

And then sometimes, the controversy or the drama or the hurt stays, and then that's when I really encourage people to dig deeper, because maybe God not only wants to take you through the discipline process, but prune you to make you even more fruitful. That concept didn't really make sense to me until I was in my mid-20s, because I was raised in a household where if you follow God, He'll answer your prayers, and life will be good. Sometimes, like I share in Chapter Three, God says, 'No.' That's when we have to go through that process of is this discipline? Is this pruning? Or, am I just supposed to abide and keep abiding and keep abiding, because maybe years down the road, God will explain, and then I'll look back and go, 'Oh, I totally get it now.'

Again, the forgiveness process. It can be long. It can be short. Sometimes it's something we did. Sometimes it's something others did. But, I love being able to explain all those different scenarios, because I just hope that that light bulb for whoever's reading it goes off and says, 'Oh, yes. That's me,' because we obviously go through those at different stages. I just hope to enlighten people to help them see, okay, maybe this is where I'm at, and gain some clarity."

Originally published Wednesday, 25 September 2013.