O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage!
Do not abandon me, O Lord. Do not stand at a distance, my God. Come quickly to help me, O Lord my savior.
Psalm 38:1, 21-22
O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, or discipline me in your wrath. Do not forsake me, O Lord; O my God, do not be far from me; make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation.
The words of the wise are like cattle prods—painful but helpful. Their collected sayings are like a nail-studded stick with which a shepherd drives the sheep.
But, my child, let me give you some further advice: Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out.
That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.
Ecclesiastes 12:11-14
And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said,
“My child, don’t make light of the Lord ’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all.
Hebrews 12:5-8
You need to be generous to yourself in order to receive the love that surrounds you.
You can suffer from a desperate hunger to be loved.
You can search long years in lonely places, far outside yourself.
Yet the whole time, this love is but a few inches away from you.
It is at the edge of your soul, but you have been blind to its presence.
We must remain attentive in order to be able to receive.
When a great moment knocks on the door of your life,
it is often no louder than the beating of your heart,
and it is very easy to miss it. Boris Pasternak