Read Hosea Chapter 6. How Do You Respond To Rebuke?
Israel responded to God with these words:
“Come, Let Us return to the Lord. He will heal us. He will revive us. He will raise us up. Let us know the Lord. Let us press on to know the Lord.”
How do you respond to someone’s rebuke? Are you quick to listen in silence so you can process what they said? Are you quick to defend yourself with excuses so you can try to justify your behavior? Or do you respond with humility because you are so willing to implement change in your life?
Do you respond differently to certain people? A family member, a spouse, a close friend, or an enemy? I’ve learned to spend less time trying to defend myself and more time processing the rebuke to see if there might be even an ounce of Truth that I need to listen to. Even our enemy has insight of our lives that we need to process.
I think we should be even more open to God’s rebuke. We should respond like the Israelites did with God and not just say the words but then actually do them.
How would our lives look differently if we really returned to the Lord with all our hearts, and then pressed on to know the Lord? How would your time with God change? How would your fellowship with other believers change? How would your everyday life change? Perhaps God is rebuking you today. It would be a good idea to process these words and then make the necessary changes. Have a blessed day!
