Thursday, September 26, 2013

Rooming with the Wise

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
ROOMING WITH THE WISE
Prov 15:31
31 He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise.
NIV


It is easy to get stuck in doing things our own way and wanting to keep it like that, but this seems to put a monkey wrench in that kind of thinking. There are times when what we are doing is not the best way or the best thing to be doing for our spiritual well-being and someone has to come along and rebuke, chastise or correct us, as the original language implies. It is then we must decide if we are going to be home among the wise, or by extension, home among the fools. Having said that, it is not easy to listen to someone come along with correction, telling us that we are wrong in our thoughts, words or deeds. But this brings us to another point which is that we all as believers have a responsibility to give life-giving rebuke. The focus of rebuke or correction must be life-giving and not simply to prove another person wrong thus making us right. This correction must come in the form of love and compassion, sprinkled with gentleness and goodness, mixed with patience and understanding and humility. There can be not one single ounce of pride or self-righteousness at all, in the one voicing correction. Yet the point of this saying is pointed straight at the listener of this life-giving rebuke and we need to be aware to receive it for what it is thus rooming among the wise. 

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