Reproval and correction is a good thing

Please by all means, if the Holy Spirit tells me I need improvement or that I was wrong in doing something, it would be a blessing to hear it. Being reproved or being corrected in something I did wrong can only be beneficial to me. And this is what the Lord usually does to His sons and children; He reproves and corrects them. God's perfect will calls for all men to come into repentance. He wants all men to say their sorry and turn away from their evil. God doesn't want all men to fall into hell, even though this is what we deserve. So feel blessed when the Lord tells you: “What you are doing is wrong and you need to do it correctly”. For if you were not His son or daughter, then He would just let you keep sinning or doing wrong.

Sometimes we shut the gift of being reproved out because of a variety of reasons. Sometimes we reject correction because we think we know it all already. If we knew it all already we would be in Heaven with God right now. Other times we reject correction is because we want to keep sinning or doing wrong for the pleasure it gives. I don't even need to explain how destructive that is! And there is the ever popular occasion we reject correction; because the truth is too hard to bear. Well no matter how hard and painful the real truth is, accepting it will always help us. Finally, perhaps the worst reason to reject correction or reprove is because of arrogance. Let's face it, sometimes when we reach a certain experience level, we want to think that we are the authority on a certain thing. We sometimes like to think that nobody can know more than us. Well my friends I tell you that the only authority on all things is only God Himself. While we are living God never let's us know everything, less we start to be unmindful of Him.

Rejecting the right reprove or correction is like having a mentality of a beast. Let's say when you go in the woods and see a wild beast like a cougar, wolf or dog. What does it do when it sees you in it's territory. Does it try to reason with you or ask questions as to why you are there? No, it only attacks and perceives you as a threat. It doesn't reason with you or tries to understand why you are there. But you can't blame it because it is a beast of the field. Yet the Bible says that when we reject being reproved or corrected, we act like these very beasts of the field.

I remember when I once got into a debate with a brother in Christ about a verse. I rejected all forms of reproval and correction from him because I was sure that the doctrine I heard was the best. But I was totally lacking in spirit, which he did have. I ended up apologizing to him months later because my mouth was open, yet my ears were shut. I acted like a beast of the field there that only bites and claws and rejects wisdom. This is what the Pharisee did during the time of Jesus Christ. They were so full of doctrine and knowledge of law that they refused to accept the spirit and wisdom. They became like stone blocks. Even when Jesus tried to correct them, they rejected Him.

Most of all the best and most urgent kind of reprove is that which calls you to repent. When Jesus Christ and his disciples traveled from city to city early in their ministry, Christ called for theses cities to repent. When they did not, He said that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for them. Because they saw much, but still stubbornly wouldn't go back on what they did wrong, that would befall them. We have to understand that Jesus Christ wants the most vile city and the most corrupt person to fall on their knees and repent. The Lord Himself testified in that same chapter that the cities which did repent will RISE in the day of judgment. So those who accepted the Lord's reprove would be raised into glory despite their past. He even goes further by testifying that if Sodom and Gomorrah were to repent, they would have still been standing to this day. This is how forgiving the Lord wants to be to us. God wants everyman to fall into repentance and be corrected for their wrong. If someone were to say to me “AJ, the Holy Spirit said what you are doing is wrong and you need to repent”, this would be taken as gift from God.

Maybe God is telling us something right now. Maybe God is trying to reprove us or our nation for something as we speak. Let's analyze the news for a minute my friends...When a plane crashes in the cold Hudson river and everyone survives, we give tribute to the pilot and give none to God. Then a few months later, several other planes crash and nearly everyone dies---Maybe God is telling us something. We take the Lord's morality out of our schools and replace His prayer with teen sex and guns, then as a result we get murder and teen pregnancy---Maybe God is trying to tell us something. Perhaps God right now is calling us and our beloved nation into repentance and reprove right now. Let's think critically for a moment. God is just trying to help us when he corrects us. Let's give Him, above all, our ears.