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Often when we are going through trials, we feel the "chastening of the Lord." We might feel like we are alone in our trials, or as if the Lord were punishing us for our sins. Hebrews 12, versus 5-12, have always been important to me whenever I have felt this way. Hebrews 12:5 tells us simply to "not dispise" when the Lord puts us through this:

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him

To dispise, according to the dictionary, is to "regard with contempt or scorn". In my own words, dispising something means that you: a) hate or dislike it, and b) don't want it. So, even though being rebuked by the Lord may seem like something we don't want, or wouldn't like to experience, Paul is telling us that we've got it backwards when we feel that way. He goes on to explain, in verse 6 (emphasis added):

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Now this is hard to remember when you're being rebuked or chastened: the Lord chastened whom the Lord loves. He, the Holiest of them all, gives us a spirit of guilt, pain, anguish, or regret, because He loves us. Paul draws the comparison of a father and a son further in versus 6-10:

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Basically, Paul states that "God is dealing with us as sons." Not strangers, but sons. A father chastens a son to teach, and to protect. Where would each of us be if our fathers on earth didn't teach us by correcting us when we were wrong? What would the world be like if wrongdoers were never "corrected?"

The last few versus on this thought, Hebrews 12:11-12, really drive home the reason for being rebuked of the Lord. There is a final goal, and Paul makes it very clear:

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

I really love Paul's choice of words: "peaceable fruit of righteousnes" and being "exercised thereby." The goal and final outcome of being chastised, if we will bear it, is that we will enjoy the peace and good works that come from righteousness. We will enjoy those things because, having born our rebuke, we will be more apt to do good in the future. The "exercise" that Paul is talking about is the hard task of bearing that rebuke well. It takes work. It might not be easy, but it is worth it.

Now, when Paul tells us to "lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees," is he not speaking to those who have gone through this rebuke, and what they might do to help those who are going through it and don't understand it? Often the chastisment of the Lord is hard to understand and to bear, and might be overwhelming. When we see our brothers and sisters burdened under the weight of the rebuke of the Lord, how might we lift up their hands, and strengthen their knees. How can we be a support, and an aide?

I will leave those questions for future discussion, but I offer my personal testimony that the Lord lives, and loves us with a perfect love. God, our Father, may chasten us for a time, but if we will bear it well, it will be for our good.