💪 Hebrews 12:11 | "..all discipline seems painful.."

📧In today’s email…

• 🤓 Background context on Hebrews

• 🙏 A prayer and reading to set the tone for the week

• 🎵 A song to help you meditate this week

Let’s dig in…

🧠Memorize

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant,

but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:11

Author & Audience Context: Hebrews ✍️ 

• Author: The most common opinion is that the letter was written by Paul, but the exact author is unknown.

  • In addition to Paul, some other potential authors include Luke, Barnabas, Silas and Apollos.

• Audience: There’s a lot we don’t know about the audience of Hebrews, but:

  • Much of the book emphasizes Christianity in relationship to Jewish teachings.

  • From what we can tell, the theme of persecution is present (Hebrews 10:32-34) and the sacrificial system in the temple seems to still be in practice.

    • This tells us it was written before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 to people familiar with Judaism

• Timeline: This was likely written between AD 64 and 68 during Nero's persecution of Christians in Rome.

  • The most likely date is around AD 67, after Timothy had been released from prison.

🧠 To learn more about the book of Hebrews, check out this Bible Project video.

The Loving Father 📖

This week, we’re coming face to face with some hard truths:

• God disciplines those he loves

• Short-term suffering is part of the path to becoming the people God created us to be

Pray 🙏

Lord, as I memorize Hebrews 12:11 this week, help me connect with your heart as a loving Father. You discipline me because you love me and want me to live life to the full.

Give me wisdom and strength to submit to your discipline, trusting in who you are, even if it’s hard in the moment.

Amen 🙏

Read 📖

Read all of Hebrews 12 slowly today to get a feel for the passage.

Pay special attention to Hebrews 12:11, preparing your heart for the week and inviting God to speak to you.

🍽️ Bonus: Read it out loud at the dinner table with your friends or family.

Listen🎵

Occasionally, there are songs we find that can help us meditate on and memorize our verse for the week.

Here is a song about Father’s great love for us by the Worship Initiative with Shane & Shane 👇️ 

Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music

LAUGH 😂