Do You Love Correction? I am working on it . . .

On my heart tonight: "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge but whoever hates correction is stupid." Proverbs 12:1. 

          You heard it here, from the book that minces no words-if you hate correction you are unwise (in nicer, more palatable terms). Of course we can examine what this means a little further and realize the author was saying "God's correction is good, why despise it?! "

          So often we can lump any negative feelings we have in the same pile.  Bad feelings=bad and that must mean there is nothing God wants to show us in them.  It's true, it might be just a passing wind or an onslaught from our enemy.  But God could also want to show us something within them.  The only way to find out is to ask HIM.  We can DO NOTHING without Him (John 15:5).  So we need His help to examine these emotions.  But we would rather not.  Or we would rather "think our way through it".  Or we would rather push it all away.  We do this because we don't know how to handle the way we have known correction in the past.  It was either too harsh, without mercy or too light.  And because there is no perfect human authority figure we are all on some variance of that scale.  But, there was a man who was perfect.  He embodied all that is good.  He has a Father who likes to bestow on us good gifts.  His Spirit loves to lead us gently, but very specifically when we ask Him.  He loves to pick us back up again when we mess up and lead us into a life  of right thinking and behaving that is life giving and full of joy.  We can be really hard on ourselves.  And the enemy is always looking to condemn us too.  So sometimes its much easier just to put all those negative emotions in a pile and say "forget about it!"  But, I believe if we hold God's hand and ask Him to help us, we can find some real jewels of His correction in that pile of "you know what".  We might find lies lurking behind those emotions, empowering them.  We might find behavior and thinking that needs His readjusting and correction.  Let that pile be the fertilizer from which we mine His truth. It is worth examining those emotions to find the root. 

               For example. you might be feeling criticized by others, but why not examine the root? Maybe it's because you yourself have been critical of others in your thoughts? Or maybe there is still a root of un-forgiveness there? When we hold harsh judgement against others it holds true we will actually experience that harsh judgement for ourselves. (Matthew 6:14)

                  And guilt?  is it always something to just toss away?? No we need to examine it. Is it God actually telling us there is something not right in our behavior? If we know God's awesomely good nature we trust He will be very specific and gentle to show us if we need to change something when we ask Him. (Luke 11:13 ) When we toss out these feelings too fast rather than go to the root we actually could toss out God's conviction or correction. By learning to examine these feelings more closely and ask the Faithful Holy Spirit to guide us, we will become ones who love discipline. That's where I want to be!

              Ever learning and growing to Love His correction.  Its hard to embrace, but He's worth it!

(In a follow-up blog I will post some truths from Margaret Thoerkelson and a teaching she did on discerning between God's voice and the enemy's.  We can know exactly whose voice we are hearing and how to avoid pitfalls of deception)