Christian Living
Have you ever stood back and watched a parent bring correction to a child and the child, instead of listening, responds back to the parent word for word and then abruptly walks away still murmuring as if they are right? Observers often think to themselves, “If that child was mine…, ” or they may even say to someone, “ that child was disrespectful and should be punished for responding to their parent in such a manner; no child should talk or respond that way to their parent.” Well, what if that child was you?
Let’s think about this, how do you as an adult handle correction? When your supervisor shares a concern about you and your work habits do you listen and examine yourself or do you turn off, bring excuses, and walk away from the conversation finding error with the supervisor? For those who still have living parents, now that you are grown, are you able to heed advice from your parents, or do you shut down, give a nonchalant response and continue doing what you want to do? What about church? Are you able to receive words of exhortation from a fellow believer in regards to parenting, relationships, conduct and your attitude, or do you disregard them because you feel that what you do with your life is not the business of the church even though the bible says, we must exhort one another every day to avoid the hardening of sin. (Hebrews 3:13) Do you recognize the Pastor as your Spiritual Leader responsible for guiding you towards the path of righteousness or do you sit in Bible Study and Sunday Service hearing and not doing because you are mad about them correcting your behavior in the kingdom and holding you responsible for spiritual growth? Do you walk away from correction hardened in your heart, mumbling your side of the story to everyone inside and outside of the church to discredit your leader or fellow believers when you know the real truth about you but you want others to see you as blameless? Finally, how do you handle correction from the Lord?
Yes, the bible tells us that the Lord does correct, he chastens, (to restrain,subdue, inflict suffering for moral purposes) those whom he loves. (Hebrews 12:5-6) The scripture Hebrews 12:11 shares that when you are chastened, it is not to be a joyous time and you might go through some grieving consequences but in the end the correction will yield good fruit. So there are times when the Lord will allow situations from your own self approved decisions to confront you face to face with consequences that may not feel good but in those trying, scary, wilderness times, that’s when you definitely listen to hear the voice of the Lord for answers. However, when you do hear the voice, the Word of God is often like a rod of correction. The bible says it is sharper than any double edge sword, it comes to bring division between your soul and spirit, exposing your true intentions of your heart….(Hebrews 4:12) The Word of God comes to bring about a change in your attitude and your behavior by ultimately giving you a heart examination..…If you are a child of God and your heart and behavior are not in alignment with his Word, as your parent, he will begin the process of correction.
Do you know when the Lord is sending correction? A sure sign of correction is when you hear a Word identifying your wrong. That Word can come as a conversation from a friend, relative, magazine cover, news story, a song, a nagging thought in your own mind, a bible study topic, or most likely a sermon, etc. A Word comes to you that tells your story and you believe it is speaking directly to your situation and suddenly you begin to feel convicted (guilty) in your spirit and your emotions begin to rise. Days can go by but you can’t shake the thought and you begin to hide or avoid others due to your shame or guilt. Irritable and angry become your best friends so you confront everyone you come in contact with because you are thinking they are judging you as you are convicting yourself. You find reasons for not wanting to be around the Saints of God and your activities with the church become burdensome. You find yourself drifting further and further away from responsibilities in the ministry that you once enjoyed. Your spirit man is quietly but consistently urging you to surrender, humble yourself and repent. The Lord divinely positions you to hear the Word of truth to move you to feel remorseful and ultimately repent from his correction because he wants you to come back into right standing with him and…..
No one has to know but you and Jesus…but at that moment, immediately you can decide what kind of child you are going to be when you recognize the correction from the Lord: one who will shut down and not receive the word, or one that will talk back while the word is going forth finding excuses so you really don’t hear word, or you can be the child that falls asleep and feels relieved that they have a legitimate reason for not knowing what the Word says about their way word behavior, and your answer to the Lord can be, “ I didn’t know, no one told me.” Maybe you can boldly pretend like nothing even happened, totally ignoring your sinful actions, nor taking responsibility for your wrongful ways and dare anyone to bring it before you. Finally, you can decide to be the one who walks away mumbling finding fault with the way the word came or the messenger who brought it (Matthew 13). Certainly you can see that none of the above would be pleasing to the Lord. Let us examine David for a more appropriate response.
Even David had to be corrected by God and he had to decide how to respondto his correction. King David had sinned and was comfortable with what he had done until God sent the prophet Nathan to open his eyes to his sinful situation in a conversation to prick his heart. Sometimes the Lord has to send someone your way to wake you up to your own spiritual suicide. Immediately, once David realized his sin, he confessed and repented and God Forgave! David was restored back into right relationship with God due to his humbled response to correction but unfortunately, David did suffer through grievous consequences for his poor decisions that ultimately affected the lives of other people. (1Chronicles 21:17)
When correction comes as a warning or an awakening it won’t substitute or serve as the consequence for your own poor decisions. Correction leads us to Repentance which brings us back into right standing with God…and we thank Jesus for his Grace for he sits and mediates on our behalf even though we are wrong! Thank God there is no condemnation in Jesus Christ!
Always remember, sin has consequences that forgiveness cannot change. Correction may be hard to bear but it is necessary for our growth in obedience and our love for Jesus.
As a child of God, stand to be corrected in your ways for although it may be painful it spawns solid spiritual character!
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