RESPONSE TO REPROOF - God is for you!!

What an incredible thought and even a foreign idea when one is labouring under the impression that God is just short of loving us when we are reproved.
It is incredibly painful when God reproves us. The psalmist said, it makes our beauty to fade away. David said his belly became as potsherd, he became as one without strength.

If God did not make the body to heal itself, a surgeon's knife would kill. God is the best surgeon ever.
He can, with His word, pierce between bone and morrow, soul and spirit, because His word to us is more accurate than a surgeon's knife.

Prove. 15:5 states " A fool despiseth his father's instruction, but he that regardeth reproof is prudent."
How often have we spent our time in grief when we are so reproved by God. Our Lord is about the business of us walking in wisdom, hence the necessity of reproof.

Time spent in grief slows up the process and hinders our progress in enjoying the good things of God. When we despise reproof or instruction, we cut off our ability to increase in wisdom and therefore the power to be a blessing. Instruction or correction is a very necessary part of growing up, both naturally and spiritually.

I was not born right and neither were you!
We all came from the wrong side of the fence, called sin. We walked in it, drank of it, even revelled in it. We gave sin all our response, if only to not reprove it.

So God's first level of correcting us is to show us the folly of our sin and our need of a Saviour.
Now when we have obeyed the first round and cross over into His kingdom, we find that there is a lot about us that does not fit. If we have despised being corrected and resent being told what to do, God's presence in our lives is where we begin to learn to die to this response. It is falling on the rock and be broken or let the rock fall on you and be crushed to pieces.

Let God's incisive work do it's surgery on us.
Hebrew 4:12 states: " The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and morrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." God knows our hearts before we can articulate it. In His love He often pre-empts us from walking in folly, thereby correcting our position before we get there. He knows the choices we will make without pre-emptive reproof and keeps us one step ahead of the game if we obey and turn .
He may correct us for a yesterday but only because we have a greater tomorrow with more to loose.

So whatever word of instruction or reproof God sends, and by whatever medium He chooses, hear and turn. The blessings we desire are just on the other side of our obedience.
God's piercing, incisive words make us feel as if He is tearing our hearts out and there is none to deliver.

God wants to teach us how to think.
Let His word teach us what is of us and what is of Him. If God seems to be on 'your case' lately, it is because He is on your side. God's word says He reproves those He loves. God is For You!!

In Jeremiah 29:11 God says to you: "For I know the thoughts that I think of you; thoughts of peace, and not of evil; to give you a furure, and a hope." Ask your heavenly Father to open your understanding, so that you may know the Hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in you. Eph. 3:18.

Yes, God is for you, indeed!

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More from Janice:

THE NEED CONCEPT !  What is my real need?

REDEMPTION!

THE PLACE OF HIS DEALING

WARFARE: BONDAGE OR FREEDOM!

THE POWER OF A SENTENCE


You may reach her at wisdomliving7@yahoo.ca