Giving and Receiving Corrective Guidance

Scripture Reading

Proverbs 29:1

Whoever is stubborn after being corrected many times will suddenly be hurt beyond cure.

Devotional

While the wording of this scripture is a bit strange, it’s saying that a person who becomes set on remaining in sin, after being told to correct their ways many times, is essentially making their own bed. No one likes to be told over and over again that something in their life is wrong, sinful, or not what God intends. It’s always easier to make excuses than confront and repent of sin. Sins that are often downplayed are over-eating, gossiping, viewing pornography, sex out of wedlock, and getting drunk. The list goes on and on, but the point is… How many times throughout your own life have you heard someone say something like “You only live once and I want another piece of cake” or “I’m not staying abstinent before I’m married. No one’s even doing that.” And I’m not talking about the unbelievers, I’m talking about your fellow believers. Maybe you’ve even made similar excuses.

Following God is usually not the easy way. Although our hearts may desire to do want God wants, our flesh and society is always trying to get us to do the opposite. Romans 7:15 says:

15 I do not understand the things I do. I do not do what I want to do, and I do the things I hate.

Sometimes we just straight up do and say stupid things. And sometimes it’s an accident and other times it’s very much deliberate. Sometimes we don’t even realize we’re in sin because we’ve convinced ourselves of a lie or something that isn’t supported by God’s Word. This is why we need to be thankful when we have a friend, relative, or fellow believer correct us even if it doesn’t feel good. Proverbs 27:6 says:

6 The slap of a friend can be trusted to help you, but the kisses of an enemy are nothing but lies.

This scripture alone tells us that truth can hurt sometimes. I mean who likes their flaws and sins pointed out? But no matter how much it hurts, it’s better than believing the lies of the enemy. Now don’t get all slap-happy because remember that the words that leave your mouth can give life or death and those that speak with care will be rewarded (Proverbs 18:21). Meaning that the attitude of “If someone doesn’t like what I have to say, that’s their problem. I spoke the truth” is not the attitude the Word calls us to have when addressing someone we love or anyone for that matter. If you’re a friend that is correcting someone out of genuine love, you want to express it in a way that they’ll not just understand, but receive, right? Because the goal is for them to understand and come back to God in that aspect of their life, not get upset and react by continuing in sin. In fact, our delivery is so important the scripture says we can speak death to someone, which is exactly like “being suddenly hurt beyond cure.”

Today you may find yourself on the receiving end of correction or you may be struggling to find the right words to correct a loved one. Maybe you tried to correct someone but you really messed it up and now that person is even less receptive than before. Whatever the circumstance may be, it’s nothing that God cannot fix.

Correction is hard. Even if you think of the most minor of examples like plugging an address into your GPS app. You miss one or two turns and the polite GPS voice keeps telling you to make a u-turn or says “recalculating” after you miss yet another turn. It’s frustrating, right? You want to follow the GPS, but the streets are close together or there’s a lot of traffic and now that “helpful” GPS app is a source of great frustration because it’s telling you to turn every 200ft and yet we need it to get to where we need to go because without it we’d be lost. Navigating through a densely populated city is a lot like navigating through life. It’s chaotic, people are moving in all different directions, we’re trying to listen to the Holy Spirit (our guide), but we don’t always do the best job. Then our friends come around and point out how we’re messing up and it can be frustrating on the receiving end. But if we just take a step back, we can appreciate what the Holy Spirit and our friends are trying to do – get us going in the right direction. Let’s pray.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word today that correction is needed and we need to be thoughtful on how we correct others and how we receive correction. I know that giving and receiving correction is difficult, but I pray that when I am corrected I would not be reactive due to my own pride, but would open my ears and heart to receive what you may be trying to tell me. And I pray that when I speak words of correction that I would do it in such a way that it would speak life into that person and not cause them to further sin. In Jesus’ name, Amen.