“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.” -Hebrews 12:5,6

If we’re going to become everything that God has called us to be, we’re going to have to be corrected, a lot. We’ve already established that being corrected and coming face to face with reality in our lives can be very difficult and painful.

When correction comes we have two choices: Humble ourselves, become vulnerable, and make changes, or become bitter, ignore the correction, and refuse to change. One leads to life and one leads to living a mediocre & miserable life.

The only way you’ll chose to humble yourself and make changes is if you have the right perspective of correction. Keith Moore said something at Impartation that set me free in this area. He said, “It’s not just correction when the Lord corrects you, it’s preparation.”

The Bible says to not give up when we’re corrected, it wouldn’t say that if we wouldn’t be tempted to. Then it says that God corrects those HE LOVES. When you’re being corrected, realize that God is preparing you for the next season of your life. That should give you hope to press through no matter how hard it gets.

Choose to be humble and vulnerable. Ask people to speak into your life, if they say something you don’t want to hear, don’t get bitter, recognize that they’re speaking into your life because they love you unconditionally and want to see God’s best in your life.

Once you’ve received correction from someone, ask questions, set boundaries, set daily disciplines, and get accountability, and before you know it, God will have taken you to an entirely new level.

Correction does has it’s perks!

Thoughts?

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.” -Galatians 6:1

I heard Erwin McManus say once that all too often we read the Bible as though we’re always the protagonist, but never the antagonist.  We’re David as he fights Goliath, but not when he committed adultery,  we’re Moses leading Israel out of Egypt, but not when he killed an Egyptian, we’re Peter when he walked on water, but not when Jesus rebuked him!

When we have this outlook in life, it’s easy to slip into a mindset of thinking we’re doing all the good we read about, and aren’t even close to doing the bad. This mindset is dangerous. It hardens our hearts to God’s correction, gets us into pride, isolate us from people, and leaves us vulnerable. We can actually get to the place where we think we’re invincible and never in danger of falling.

When we always view ourselves as the protagonist, we’ll never build the character we need to sustain what God’s called us to, and ultimately, we’ll fall.

We need to recognize that we’re all just one choice away from becoming the antagonist.

If we’re humble enough to recognize this, we’ll start to read God’s Word and other books with a whole new perspective. We’ll start to ask ourselves questions like: Why did these people make poor decisions? Am I displaying similar attitudes or making similar decisions to these men that got them into trouble? Am I actually living out the Word of God that I’m reading?

Always strive to be the protagonist, but don’t be naive enough to believe that you’re incapable of being the antagonist. Ask God for the wisdom and grace to get in the Word and evaluate where you stand on every issue, how you can improve, and what attitudes of your heart you need to change.

Thoughts?

“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.”                                                      ~Hebrews 12:5,6

I’ve been praying this prayer for the past few months, “God help me to develop me as quickly and as solidly as I can.” I didn’t realize how dangerous of a prayer I’d be praying.

Sometimes when we pray that prayer, we think God will just take us to another level in our lives, without us having to go through any trials or testing. We’ll just wake up one day and be the man or woman of God He’s called us to be! Anyone else find out it doesn’t work that way?

Days after I prayed that prayer, through various means, I started recognizing things that I need to grow in. I didn’t like what I was seeing at all. In fact, I got really discouraged.

I found out why that verse says, “Don’t give up when he corrects you.” When you’re getting corrected and disciplined in your walk with God, the temptation will be to quit. It doesn’t feel good! So what will get you through it?

Recognizing God loves you and knows what’s best for you. This takes humility. Humility is the ability to realistically see where you are, admit where your not, ask for help, & make changes. But it’s the only way to go to another level.

This will require us to trust God with every aspect of our lives, to know He knows what He’s doing, and to take steps of faith.

Let’s humble ourselves today and allow God to take us to another level.

Thoughts?