God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off big-time, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. (The Message).

I need to say that I have not known the levels of persecution experienced by these Hebrew Christians. This would be the case for most believers living in the Western world. But I think it is also true to say that many of us have gone through trials, hardships, losses we would not have chosen for ourselves. We would not have ticked those particular boxes on life’s menu. Nevertheless, speaking personally, I can say that I am grateful for all the things God did in me when it felt like life was beating up on me.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (v.11 ‘New International Version’).

Everything that comes our way is under His Sovereign control, and He uses it all for the furtherance of His purposes in us. It is also an indicator that we truly are His children. As someone said, you might wish you could discipline the neighbours’ kids, but you can only legitimately do it to your own your own.