The Rod of Correction.
Proverbs 22:15 (NLT) “A youngster’s heart is filled with foolishness, but physical discipline will drive it far away.”
There are actions of providence that fill you with dismay. You not only have trouble within, but also, strange as it seems, trouble without. It partly arises from friends who say that you are mad for believing in Christ; would to God that they were bitten with the same madness. It also arises from circumstances over which you have no control. It is not unusual for God to wreck the vessel in which His people sail, although He fulfills His promise that not a hair of their heads will perish. Do not wonder if He causes two seas to meet around your boat, that there is nothing but a few boards and broken pieces of the ship left. If you have faith in Christ, He will bring you safe to shore.
It is not at all uncommon for the Lord to add the outward lashing of affliction to the inner scourging of conscience. This double scourging is meant for proud, stubborn hearts, that they may be humbly brought to Jesus’ feet. For in us it may be said, as Solomon said of the child, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him” (Prov. 22:15). God is bringing folly out of you by the sting of His rod.
“Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, as do stripes the inner depths of the heart” (Prov. 20:30). The Lord is making your wounds black and blue. I should not wonder if He will let them be infected until you say with Isaiah, “From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment” (Is. 1:6). It is then that eternal mercy will take advantage of your extreme distress and bring you closer to Christ.
— Charles Spurgeon
