Tag: Discipline

God in the ‘Tenderizing’ Seasons

Tracy Graves Stevens

Oops, I Did It Again

Sometimes, when I look back over my life, I realize how many times God has had to save me.  As much as I hate to admit it, many times He has had to save me from myself!  My Savior has had to save me, too many times, from doing things I know I shouldn’t be doing.  That’s when God’s Holy Hand, reaching in to intervene, reminds me of the process used to get meat to a state where it is chewable and tasty.   In the normal process of meat preparation, a good marinade should be all that is needed to make it palatable.  But sometimes, when the meat is a little tough, you need a meat tenderizer to soften it up.  God can be like a tenderizer at certain points in our lives when we need some ‘softening’. 

Now, I believe God prefers to marinate us with His Word and Spirit.  That is what I call the ‘spice route’, where He uses the salt of His Word and the fragrance of His Spirit to get our attention.   However, there are those times God needs to be that tool, you know, the one that looks much like a hammer.  That tool is a pretty harsh tool and it is used to ‘pound out’ the resistant areas of our lives to bring in the taste and tenderness.  

Time to Tenderize

There are times in life where we are like the reference in Acts 7:51 where God looks at us like a “stiff-necked people.”  That is when we resist the direction of the Holy Spirit to ‘do right’ and follow our own feelings and desires.  That begins what I call the ‘tenderization season’ in our living where God steps in and creates a level of interference to get us back on track.  It can be momentary, where the correction is only for an instant (like the marinade) or it can last longer if the actions warrant it.  The hardest response is when the tenderization comes by way of the ‘hammer’ – think Jonah, when he disobeyed God’s direction because he wasn’t ‘feeling it’ (Jonah 1:1-3). Or the Israelites so many times throughout the Bible when they refused to follow God’s way. 

Remember, when God’s refining fire comes into your life, it is much easier to BEAR if it comes via the light touch of God’s ‘marinade’ vs. the blunt force (and prickly points) of a tenderizing hammer.  God loves us enough to give us the free will to choose His Will.  He also loves us enough to use discipline to help us recognize that His course is the best course.  Tenderization is discipline. I believe this allows us to understand the ramifications of our choices and not blame Him when our decisions are not aligned with His.

Tenderization is Discipline

His Word reminds us that He is always available to save us from ourselves. The door is never closed to make a ‘hard turn’ to get out of the trouble we have created and make to choice to choose Him.  Think about the prodigal son, whose choices led him to a place where even pigs lived better than he did (Luke 15:13-16).  Once he ‘got it’ he ran back home to the loving arms of a waiting father.  That is how God is with us.  However, one thing I have learned in my own faith walk, God will not continue to give you rope after life-saving rope without some ‘tenderization’.  This is part of the loving discipline of a loving God who wants us to experience the best things in life.

So…Our humanity will sometimes create tenderizing seasons in life.

It is better to avoid the hammer by marinating in God’s Word, spending time in prayer to listen to His voice and following His directions.  If you find yourself on the wrong end of God’s discipline, don’t ignore Him (like Jonah), follow Him.  And always remember, God loves you and only wants the best for you.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

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Walk It Like You Talk It

Tracy Graves Stevens

Walk it like you talk it or, more personally, walk it like I talk it.  That is the lesson I must keep in mind as I walk through this life and as I tell others about Jesus. The importance of this edict stays on my mind constantly, but it hasn’t always been there.  I had to learn that people are always watching how I respond to events in life as God matures my faith and I have to be intentional in thinking about my responses.

Button, Pushed

I recently had an experience where I found myself in a disagreement with another person.  Not just any person but one who was also a Christian, like me.  Nothing unusual, we all get into differences of opinion, but for some reason, this disagreement spiraled way out of the context of what we were in conflict about.  Their response hit me in my emotional core which made me want to reply far more aggressively than I probably needed to.  The other person sensed this and put up their defenses and the next thing I knew, we were facing an all-out argument.  Why and how did this happen?  As Christians, we should know better right?  Well, the other person was my husband who is the one person that can push all my emotional hot buttons.  And boy, he did at that moment.

Take a Breath

Thankfully, the outcome was not what it could have been.  If it had happened at an earlier time in my life this would have resulted in some hurt feelings.  That was during the early days of my walk with Christ.  It has taken some time, but controlling my emotions was the first thing God had to deal with in my soul.  I grew up in a family where letting the other person know what was on your mind was the norm vs. the exception so I had to learn to respond differently.  Thank God, He didn’t give up on me and realistically, I am still learning, one day at a time.

Colossians 2:8 says –

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces[a] of this world rather than on Christ.”

When you read this scripture, it speaks to the importance of knowing the truth of God’s Word, so we don’t fall victim to false interpretations embedded in human traditions.  I take this one a bit further because I believe our responses to the ‘things of life’ are also related to our interpretation of what God says is appropriate.   Just because everyone is doing it or it is legal, doesn’t make it right.  We must ‘walk it like we talk it’ as God’s Ambassadors on earth.  In my case, responding in anger would have only made the situation worse and the Bible is very clear that we should be “slow to anger” (James 1:19).

Let Your Light Shine

We need to ‘walk it like we talk it’ because people are always watching.  The enemy will use others, especially those close to you, to get you to be an example that is opposite of what God is telling you to be.  That is why we need to understand the importance of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5) and relying on the Holy Spirit to direct our paths (John 14:26).  Additionally, spiritual warfare is real and determined to make you stumble.  Our responses can not only make us stumble but can also be an obstacle to another person’s faith walk.  Think about it – who wants to be around a bunch of angry, impatient, abusive people?  That’s why we need to understand how God wants us to live and respond to life’s experiences.  Don’t worry if you are reading this and feel “oh, oh, I have not been responding appropriately.”  Thankfully God’s grace and mercy can pick us up, dust us off and give us another chance to make it right.

Get into the Bible, pray and be in relationship with God.  The Holy Spirit will tell you how to walk, where to walk and even when to walk away.  And the reality of it all, God promised us He would fight our battles for us, so let God respond for you (Exodus 14:14).

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