Rebuke – Proverbs 12:1

There is a really nice article on receiving rebuke by ChoiceDrivenLife.  She gives three really helpful ideas about productive reception of correction, the first being to make your spirit aware of the Holy Spirit.  It reminds me of a Scottish pastor to whom another pastor brought the news that a certain preacher was questioning the salvation of one of this pastor’s friends.  The pastor began asserting that there was no doubt of his friend’s salvation and how dare this man slander him so.  The other pastor said, “He has questioned your salvation, also,” whereupon this pastor dropped to his knees and began imploring the Lord to show him his own heart.  Are we that sensitive to rebuke and to the Lord?

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,

but he who hates reproof is stupid. (Proverbs 12:1, ESV)

Do you like being corrected?  If so, I would guess that you are in the minority and I bless you because you are someone whom God can use mightily.  Most of us hate to be reproved, but hopefully we don’t hate reproof itself when we see how it shapes our lives for good.  We want to please the Lord.  We want to live lives that are a reflection of Jesus Christ, our Savior.  So even when we feel embarrassed to be corrected, we know it is for the best.

We may resist it, discipline and reproof that is, at first, only to reflect on it later and realize it was spot on.  Do we go back to the one who reproved us and confess to him or her that we needed the reproof?  That’s harder, but probably necessary.  When we give reproof are we humble in doing so, knowing how hard it is for us to receive reproof?

John of the Cross, a 16th century priest, said, “Do not excuse yourself or refuse to be corrected by all. Listen to every reproof with a serene countenance; think that God utters it.”  Whether the person reproving us is doing it well or not, it may be God Himself who is seeking to help us grow.  Let’s learn to love discipline.

Lord, keep me from defensiveness at correction and instead open my spirit to Your Spirit that I might receive all I need to become more like Christ.  Search me and know me, and try my heart to see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23,24).