“Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead” (Hebrews 12:12-13, CSB).

In the first half of Hebrews 12, the Hebrews writer expounds on a saying from Proverbs in the Old Testament: “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives” (Hebrews 12:6, Proverbs 3:12).

First, the Hebrews writer reminds the Hebrew Christians that any suffering they are experiencing is not nearly as much as what Jesus, the Son of God, endured to the extent of shedding His blood from flogging and crucifixion.

Next, the Hebrews writer explains that when you do suffer, consider it the discipline of the Lord. Because the Lord disciplines His children with the same intent as a human father disciplines his children.

So, Christian suffering is the Lord’s discipline exacted upon His children in love to learn His righteousness.

Does this mean that the Lord sends trouble on us to make us suffer so we can be better Christians?

Not exactly. It means that when we encounter adversity in our lives, we should consider it a theological teachable moment from the Lord!

I’ve noticed that when I encounter problems in my life that I pray more, read and study my Bible more and generally seek God’s will more conscientiously than when everything is going my way.

Thus, no matter what the cosmic causation of your problems may be, the suffering and sorrow caused by trouble and misfortune is a spiritual opportunity to draw close to the Lord, to nail your own will to the cross and take up the cross of Jesus and learn the righteousness of the Lord.

Although suffering may be painful at the time, when you encounter troubles in your life, don’t go around downtrodden, dismal or dismayed. “Strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees” says the Hebrew writer.

In other words, when you are suffering, you are experiencing the fatherly discipline of the Lord. So, don’t be a crybaby Christian about it. Instead, lift your head up, throw your shoulders back, and walk around proud because you are a child of God!

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18, CSB)