People oftentimes say God’s Love is like that of a good father! 

The best ‬‬father! 

I feel the same way, honestly! 

God is a good Good Father! 

Nevertheless, that’s not all He is. 

Let’s not forget that He is God Almighty!  

We are quick to believe God is a Good Father when He is giving us the blessing! When we get the promotion. When the good friends are in our life. When the perfect home is in our price range and we get to close on it. When we are smiling at strangers and making decisions that look very Christiany.

However, when we don’t get the job. When the loan doesn’t go through. When the friend stops calling. When we go off on our family, we instantly think that our good Father who had once showered favor over us has now decided to punish us. 

I know from experience that my mindset changes when something bad happens and I have to remind myself of one thing that will change your life, if you choose to fully realize it! 

…  my works are not what earned grace and my works cannot take it away. 

Good works or bad works, though works are an expression of faith, they are not what God uses to base His blessing on. 

He gave us grace without us deserving it (John 3:16) 

We do forget this though.

I’ve been in times where I’ll be believing God’s love is strongly on me, then all of a sudden, an opportunity fell through or I lost what I held dear. In these moments, the first thought that comes to my head is: 

"is God punishing me?" 

“what am I being punished for? 

Did I not commit to reading God’s word enough?  

Was I living in sin?”  

We start thinking God is just waiting to punish us for not reading the Bible that day or for not responding to our coworkers like Jesus would have responded. 

Before I know it, I’ve let myself believe that my whole relationship with God is futile and I am not as close to Him as I thought. 

This mindset is lethal to our relationship with the Lord.

If left unaddressed, we will view God’s love for us as conditional and circumstantial; which is not God’s love for us! 

We will completely misunderstand God and His word. 

We will believe our God loves us, only when we do as we should, but when we fail, He can’t wait to pull the rug out from under us…  as if He likes to see us hurt. 

We will believe God’s pure grace and mercy is now dependent on our behavior. 

This is dangerous because we are misrepresenting God and accusing Him of basing His responses on our actions. 

God does not let our behavior change His mind! 

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”

‭‭II Timothy‬ ‭2:13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Why do we believe this, if we know that God is the kind of Father Who sends His Son to die WHILE we are still sinners?

The world doesn’t offer much mercy, and neither do we offer it to the world. Our minds are already preset to believe that we will be punished harshly for every mistake. 

Our actions have consequences but the consequences should be related to the action! 

The punishment lies in the consequences that are naturally attached to certain things. 

Practically, this means that if you run a red light, your punishment will not be, your dog dying. Your mistake might mean a traffic ticket, but it will not bring a consequence that isn’t related to your action. 

As far as bad things happening out of nowhere, we know that we live in a fallen world, but we forget about that when something bad happens in our life and we can’t attach a natural cause to it. 

We have to assign a reason or blame. 

Something caused this! 

Everyone searches for a why!

Whether it be a natural disaster, devastating your town, or a robbery; maybe even a miscarriage or loss of a family member. 

These things are not consequences. 

A consequence is like someone habitually drinking whiskey, since they were ten, and now they have liver complications.

The medical issues had a cause relating to them and the cause could be controlled. 

However, the things that we can’t see a natural cause for, are oftentimes, the exact same things we try to determine a cause for. 

Disasters are NOT consequences! 

Your car that wouldn’t start, causing you to miss your big interview! That isn’t God punishing you for using a swear word the other day! The car was already needing work but you haven’t made the time to get the car checked out! 

Or maybe… just maybe! 

The car just didn’t start! 

That’s not God punishing you! 

That’s not the devil messing with you! 

That stuff happens in a temporary world filled with inconsistent things. 

Sure you can give the enemy credit for that and see this as proof why you can never move forward.  

Or you can say that God is punishing you for your sins. 

But both are a waste of your time and purpose here! 

You could also choose to see it as an opportunity to say,   

“Okay God. I didn’t make this interview, but I could always reschedule or wait for the next opportunity. I can trust You to bring the best opportunities my way and until then, You are working on my character in these situations, to prepare me for that job I desire, where the responsibilities will be way more than I am prepared for at this moment.”  

This is just an example, but we all have opportunities everyday to analyze our situations and determine what is a reasonable consequence and what is just a misfortunate event. 

Remember: 

The definition of a consequence is the result or effect of an action. 

A consequence correlates with the action it’s attached to. 

God is a good Parent. 

He is not looking for opportunities to trip us up or harm us. 

He meant it, when He said He loves us!

Romans‬ ‭8:37-39‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Since God is a loving Parent, He will choose to punish us sometimes, but all for the purpose of correcting us; which is all for the purpose of giving us abundant life! 

The correction is to redirect us, so we head towards what will be best for our lives, and keep us from unintentionally damaging ourselves or others. 

The proper way to punish your child is to give them a consequence that will help them see what their behavior is capable of and why it shouldn’t continue. 

That’s why hitting children rarely works; because the kids believe lying, cheating, stealing, being mean, swearing, and all of those things, will always result in physical violence. 

The child will fear the parent and they will not trust that the parent is trying to protect or correct them to go in a beneficial direction. 

What happens when they learn that they can handle the physical violence and it’s worth it if they can also have what they want?…  

They act out even more because they still don’t see why their actions are wrong, they just know that they can take the beating when it comes. 

Then they see that the world doesn’t hit them physically if they steal or lie on their taxes. Now, they see something different than they saw from their parents! They go to jail now and lose all they own, still unaware as to WHY what they have done is damaging to the lives of those around them or even how their actions could affect their lives forever! 

The consequences should match the wrongdoing!

If they knew the real consequences were not a bruise that heals, but the consequences are ultimately public distrust, destroying other people’s livelihoods, jail time and paying more than the value of what they stole; they would be less likely to commit the wrong act. 

A parent knows that a time-out is a toddlers glimpse into jail time. 

Giving them time when they can’t go around freely, but instead, time to think about what they did, helps more than a spanking. 

Our punishments ought to look like what could really happen in the future, if children continue on this path, if it’s to make a change in their behavior. 

These are consequences!

This is what I call good punishment!

Punishment that you can trace back to it’s onset. 

Honestly, I’m not trying to tell people how to parent their children. I am not in a position to judge in any way because I am not in a parenting season… 

but I am in a child season.

I am now, and forever will I be able to see first hand from the perspective of a child, because I will forever be a child of God. 

I don’t know what it’s like to parent a child…  but I have had parents and I have seen how God parents His children. 

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor detest His correction; For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3:11-12‬ ‭NKJV‬‬  

God allows these consequences to teach us, but what can we learn from a hurricane or a fire taking down our house? What behavior are we sparked to change when our infant is diagnosed with cancer? What does a miscarriage tell us about our conduct and priorities? 

Allow me to answer! 

NOTHING 

Because consequences only come after a cause. If there’s no cause within our control, we can’t trace it back to something that we must change. 

No matter how good, righteous or faithful you are to God, you cannot hide from the fact that, there has been a glitch in this world, ever since sin entered, and a glitch is unpredictable, unavoidable and usually without a cause from you. 

I mean, yeah… we cause a lot of unnecessary problems with our sin, but not everything that happens, is a result of our poor judgement and conduct. 

Bad things happen! 

The blame game won’t bring closure to the situation. 

I lost my whole paycheck, it’s probably because I haven’t been reading my Bible for a couple days. 

I had a miscarriage, it’s probably because I haven’t been speaking to my husband with the kindness I know God wants me to show. 

I was forced to leave the job, it’s probably because I wasn’t stewarding my relationships well enough or because my mind has been attacked with thoughts of sin. Maybe God’s trying to tell me how sinful my heart is. Maybe He is showing me that since I’m so bad inside, I can’t have anything good in life.

That last one was personal. 

Can you see a pattern in these scenarios? 

The effect and the cause don’t correlate! 

If they did, this is what they would look like: 

I haven’t felt God speaking into my life, it’s probably because I haven’t been reading my Bible for a couple days.   
My relationship with my husband has been distant lately, it’s probably because I haven’t been speaking to my husband with the kindness I know God wants me to show.

The first part of the first example sentences should not be followed with a comma, but instead with a period.  

They are statements! 

I had a miscarriage. I lost my paycheck, I had to give up my job. 

Those statements are concluded already by that period and the envelope is sealed and stamped and sent right to the first priority of our Heavenly Father. 

We think we need further explanation; preferably something we can put in our hands so we feel control again but the fact is… 

nothing is in our control except self control. 

Things happen. 

There are things bigger than us. 

We are destructible and unable to save ourselves. 

We think if we had the power to cause the disaster, we can cause a way out. 

We try and turn the uncontrolled situation into a consequence because we know if it’s a consequence we can change what causes it. 

We can’t change some things! 

It’s not a consequence. 

We are just torturing ourselves and painting a terrible picture of our Father. 

We make Him out to be a harsh judge, who is just waiting for our conduct and behavior to fail so the He can slam the gavel down on us. 

This picture helped me see where God’s focus is:  

Consider a manager or a boss. 

If you slipped up and typed up the wrong email and sent it out, received in the wrong product, screwed up your delivery route, etc. 

Do you think your boss was just waiting for that day so He could take your employee parking space away, tell you that you can’t go to any company event or party or revoke your breaks. 

Those two things don’t correlate and you won’t understand why the behavior needs to change. 

The consequence would be, you have to take more time to redo the email. In addition, you need to take responsibility and apologize for the wrong information; you would have to take more time to fulfill your routes that you missed; you would have to go through the long process of shipping the wrong product back and schedule the correct product as well as the usual deliveries you need to schedule. 

Those consequences will take so much time and hard work that you will be extra careful next time! 

Also consider that your good boss hired you to fulfill a need!  

He isn’t going to waste time and effort in punishing you unjustly. 

He wants you to learn but you only work eight hours and he doesn’t have enough time with you, to waste on silly things, like finding any way to make you miserable when you make a mistake.

His goal is not to crush you under the pressure.

He needs work done! 

Remember that God isn’t just your good Father but also your good Boss.  

He wouldn’t have wasted resources and breath in creating you, if there was no market for you! 

God saw a need and created you to meet that need. 

You may glitch sometimes but the Creator will keep fixing what is broken. 

Your Boss is ultimately invested in fulfilling the need. You are what will help Him do that, so why would He contemplate ways to punish you unjustly? He wouldn’t have bothered to create you, if He only looked to condemn you for how you fall short. 

He wants you to just focus on addressing the current situation and learn something. He doesn’t want you to be stuck, thinking you are too broken to ever be acceptable to Him. 

If you’re breathing, God sent you to fulfill a specific need. 

You’re not a broken version of the same thing on a conveyor, you are the whole concept of a product entirely! 

There is only one! 

He isn’t crumpling the idea of what He created just because of a little mishap. 

I’m sure everyday, while Apple makes the same iPhone, one comes out wrong and glitching. 

Did they close Apple for good? 

No! It’s just one of the billions that are functioning properly! 

In this example, you are NOT just another iPhone on a conveyor… 

you are Apple! 

The iPhones would be the little pieces of you that sometimes function well and other times, fall short of the Creator’s expectation. 

God doesn’t scrap the whole investment,

He removes what’s broken and keeps producing what is fruitful. 

God sent you! 

He loves you! 

He wants you to know the difference between consequences and just bad things happening. 

If you don’t know the difference, the enemy will use it to confuse you and harden your heart, so you won’t be focused on letting God develop your character where He is trying to. You will be too distracted, trying to control the results of everything you do or too busy, running from God, out of fear that He is seeking to destroy everything in your life. 

Once you analyze every situation to determine if it’s a true consequence, that correlates with the action proceeding it or just a bad thing, that actually breaks God’s heart more than it even breaks your own; then, you will see God in the consequences and call on Him in what you can’t control!  

You will see that God’s grace is purely because He is good and His goodness will not stop, no matter how many times you fail! 

Your works… 

Whether good or bad, 

Will never determine God’s love for you! 

“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” 

‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭3:22-23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬