This journey of growing in maturity that we’re on continues to bring us more and more into a place of dying to self and living for Christ!
We’ve moved from learning about the Fear of God into Humility and then into being open for God to change us… naturally, correction is part of this journey of maturity.
Last week Ryan preached about change. He encouraged us to truly pray the prayer we memorized from Psalm 134:23-24
“Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
It’s one thing to cry out for God to search us and know us… but what do we do when he DOES point out to us the things that offend him? How do we respond when the path he leads us along includes correction?
In the same way that it takes willingness to have God speak to us and to search our hearts, it takes a whole lot of courage and humility to take the next steps in receiving His correction.
Being called to mature and to grow in our faith is not for the faint of heart.
Making Every Effort will INEVITABLY lead us to correction.
Thankfully, our God is not like Thanos when being inevitable leads to destruction. Our God’s correction and response to failure is completely from a place of love. That does not mean it will be easy to receive correction or fun to deal with the parts of our heart that are actually offensive to Him… but it will be worth it every, single time.
By responding to people’s questions with new questions, by constantly steering people away from a focus on themselves, Jesus showed us that not only is the Kingdom of His Father inherently about setting captives free and breaking off injustice as well as caring for the poor, it is also a kingdom of correction.
The Spirit of God is consistent. Way back in the days of the prophets, God spoke through Isaiah (and many, many, many other prophets) about leaving behind this lukewarm type of living. This settling into the way things have always been. God Himself spoke through Jesus and redirected his people through teaching about what the Kingdom of his Father is TRULY like!! And way later, nearing the end of the Bible, the Spirit of God speaks through John in the form of letters to a church in Laodicea… “Be earnest and repent.”
As we cry out for God to search our hearts for the things that are are offensive to him, we must be prepared to receive his correction. Remembering that it will always be coming from a place of love and betterment – not just for us! For the oppressed, for those who are being taken advantage of and for those who need food and clothing.
As the Lord lovingly brings correction to his children, we have a choice to make. Will we be defensive or will we receive the gift of correction that he is extending to us?
I’ll leave you with the letter to Laodicea in Revelation 3… consider what it is that Jesus would like to chat with you about over dinner? He’s knocking and longing to dine with you.
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”