Strife Free Life – How to Receive Correction (part 5)

Strife Free Life – How to Properly Receive Correction (part 5)

Last post we went over Six Steps to guide you on how to properly receive correction. In this post, we’ll talk about what to do if you were corrected and you weren’t wrong! Plus we’ll look at Saul, and see how the Lord feels about dodging correction.

I probably should have made it a bonus step:

Bonus: Don’t focus on how you were corrected, just why.

Some people can’t get past the “how” they were corrected to even let the why sink into their heart. The correction is dismissed, because they weren’t spoken to how they liked.

You might be wondering, what if I was corrected and I wasn’t wrong? Ah, the true flesh verses spirit. It depends on who corrected you and why.

Boss at work
If it was your boss at work, then you’re wrong. The Bible tells us in Romans 13:7 to give honor to whom honor is due. We’re not to fight back. This is a case to be led by the Holy Spirit, ask Him to reveal truth to your boss as you act in love.  

Parents

If your parents are correcting you and they’re wrong, they’re right and you’re wrong! The Bible tells us to honor your mother and father, so that all will be well with you, and you’ll live a long life. On that note, they are absolutely right. I need reminded of this often myself. Your parents can give you one serious flesh correction and miss the Holy Spirit completely. I’m giggling as I write this, if you have to tell yourself in that moment, “If I take this all will be well with me, and I will live a long life.” Do it! On a side note, a man that was told by the doctors he was dying, was healed according to this scripture. He didn’t know the Bible well or follow The Lord closely until his life took a turn. He knew this scripture from childhood and told the Lord that he honored his parents and so he could expect a long life. That man was healed of cancer.

Church leader

If you are corrected by a church leader, you’re wrong. Don’t speak up unless the Holy Spirit, not your spirit, directs you. I am not writing on anything that I didn’t have to go through myself. It truly is difficult to stay silent and walk in love as a pastor is lying, slamming, scheming, and correcting you over her own low mentality issue, a copy machine that didn’t belong to her. After taking constant corrections and walking in love, I ended up blessed with my own personal printer. A few years later she, the children’s pastor and preschool leader, lost her job for conduct. I had nothing to do with it. The Bible tells us to pray for these people, and then you are free to look for your blessing.

Somone not above you

If you’re corrected by a sibling, friend, coworker, or someone who is not above you, you can say, “Thank you. I will pray about this.” We still have to walk in love. When I know I’ve been corrected because the other person is emotionally upset and it’s directed at me, I tell them, “I respectfully disagree, but I will ask the Lord.” I do ask the Lord, because I welcome correction.

When we fight against well needed correction, we can cause our spiritual life to stop growing or even push the Lord away from us. We see a really good example of this in…

1 Samuel 15 _NKJV

verses 1-2 Samuel, the prophet, tells Saul the king that the Lord wants to punish Amalek, the grandson of Esau, for what he did to Israel right after they left Egypt. They attacked the Israelites from behind, without being provoked. The Lord gives King Saul instructions:

³Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

verses 4-7 Saul attacks the Amalekites.

verses 8-9 Saul doesn’t listen. He took their king, Agag, and the best animals. They only destroyed what was worthless.

verses 10-11 The Lord tells Samuel He regrets making Saul king, because he turned his back on the Lord.

verses 12-13 We can see Saul is pretty pleased with himself and tells Samuel, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

verse 14 Samuel questions Saul, giving him a chance to repent.

verse 15 Saul begins blaming others, “THEY have brought them from the Amalekites; for THE PEOPLE spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord YOUR God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” Notice Saul said, “they,” did it. “They” only did it to sacrifice to HIS, Samuel’s, God. Wait, He’s not Saul’s God anymore? Then Saul says, “WE” have destroyed. Saul had no intention of accepting responsibility for his actions.

verse 16 Samuel tells Saul, “Be quiet!” But we know this as, “Shut up!” Not because Samuel is mean, but because Saul is digging a deeper hole with the Lord.

verse 17-19 Samuel reminds Saul of his humility by saying, “When you were little in your own eyes.” Because Saul once humbly wondered why God would use him. Now Samuel is telling him being king went to his head.  

verse 20-21 Saul is obviously in strife because he’s completely confused. He defends himself, and refuses to take the correction, by saying he did go on the mission, bring back their king, and destroy the Amalekites. He goes on to repeat himself how “the people took of the plunder,” but this time admits it should have been destroyed. Then he adds to appease the Lord, but in reality insulting Him once again, “to sacrifice to the Lord YOUR God.”

verses 22 Samuel corrects him, “to obey is better than sacrifice.” He continues on, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,” that will shed some serious light on how the Lord feels about teen rebellion. Saul continues on and really knocks him down with, “And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. ”Before he tells Saul that the Lord has rejected him as king.

A good point of this part of the story, write down what the Lord tells you to do! Kill ‘em all wasn’t too difficult to remember, but apparently confusion had already taken root. That’s probably why women write lists for men, they know confusion might take root. Hehe In all seriousness, Saul was refusing to obey and then made it worse by refusing correction. When you hear witchcraft, that means the devil is already having a heyday. No believer wants to be grouped with witchcraft. Stubbornness, set in your ways, is not a fruit of the spirit. But yet, some older people wear it like a badge of honor. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon defines the Hebrew word for stubbornness as absolute wickedness. Thankfully under the New Covenant we have forgiveness. We can repent and move on.

verse 24-34 Finally, Saul responds by confessing that he sinned, but he still continued to blame the people, claiming he was afraid of them. Still didn’t fully accept his correction but still asks for forgiveness. Samuel still insists that the kingdom has been taken away from him. Saul begged Samuel to go with him so he could be “honored” in front of his people, and not shamed. After they worshipped the Lord, Samuel called for King Agag to brought to him. Samuel cut him in pieces in front of the Lord.

I know I spoiled the whole story, if you don’t remember it well, but it’s still a good story to go back and read with a different view. You may have wondered why The Lord didn’t let Saul repent and be given the kingdom back. There is a difference between being sorry and sorry you’re caught. Saul was only sorry he was caught, and that he was punished. He didn’t have a true heart of repentance. It’s made clear in the event that Samuel had to call for King Agag to kill him, and that Saul didn’t bother to do it. I’ve been disobedient. When I repented, for whatever I did wrong, I wanted to fix it right away, not wait around and let someone else fix my disobedience. Fixing your mess is an act to show that you’re truly sorry. Saul is a good example of how we shouldn’t behave when we’re corrected, and how seriously the Lord takes disobedience and dishonor.

Proverbs 6:16-19 _NKJV

¹⁶These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

¹⁷ A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil,

¹⁹A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.

God doesn’t like lying! It’s also mentioned in revelations that there is a special place in the lake of fire for liars. Apparently, lying is a great way to bring demons on the scene. When we get corrected, we must not lie. Some teenagers are good for taking weeks or months until the truth comes out. Adults shouldn’t be behaving like teenagers. Lying is just not acceptable to the Lord, so much He mentions lying twice. Think back to Adam, he didn’t want to receive correction either. He lied, blamed the Lord, and blamed Eve, “The woman whom YOU gave to be with me…”. Perhaps if Adam told the truth, was willing to take correction, and asked to be forgiven, maybe things would be much different on Earth today. It’s better to be truthful and have people angry at you, than lie and the Lord be angry with you.

Sowing discord among brethren is strife, an abomination to the Lord. Strife, no matter how right you are when you sow it, you become an abomination to the Lord. That’s worth repeating, sowing strife when you’re innocent makes you an abomination. There is no soft way to say it. It’s best to speak the truth here in love, because no one wants the Lord to look down from Heaven at them and say, “Abomination!” You don’t want to go to the Lord in a desperate situation and He says, “Abomination.” It’s just not worth it! No one or thing is worth that cost.

Anytime we’re corrected, we have to guard our hearts from strife. We must start to view corrections as something positive and teach others it’s a good thing for personal growth. Someone cares enough to help me make a better change in my life. Of course it doesn’t feel good, but we see in scripture that’s normal. The world even understands that correction is necessary and painful. They have the “sandwich cookie method” they like to use, “say nice positive things, then correct them, then say nice positive things again.” That’s great if you’re only correcting someone once. The downside to the world’s method is that when you hear a compliment, you’ll be waiting for the correction every time. Your compliments will lose their meaning. It’s ok to just speak the truth in love.

Next post will be the last on this series, and it will be on the accuser of the brethren. Then, one of my favorite subjects, prayer. Lord, please show us if we accidently, especially with hurt feelings, made ourselves an abomination, or refused your just correction when we shouldn’t have. You’re welcome to freely speak into our lives and direct our paths. Thank you for helping us grow in love and honor. In Jesus name, Amen.

   Christi