Correct Me, Lord

 I don't know about you, but I didn't really like it when my parents corrected me. I am sure that I never asked them to correct me, but I should have done that. Yes, I knew I was not perfect. I knew I had a lot to learn, but in my pride I thought I was doing well enough so that I did not need to get corrected. I especially did not like it when they corrected me by spanking me or giving me serious consequences for my sins, but I have to admit it did help me learn.

Jeremiah saw his situation as a prophet for God's people. He knew that he needed help, and he was wise enough to pray for God to correct him. (Jeremiah 10:24) "So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die." I believe there is a lot of wisdom in praying like this, and we can learn about what we need and how we should correct others, too. I hope it will change our attitude about being corrected and correcting others.

If we have a good amount of God's wisdom so we can see things like God sees them, we know that God is in control, and we can't do the right things in life without following Him. We all sin because we don't always listen to Him. Therefore, we should seek His correction daily. We should ask for our loving Lord to gently correct us, so we do His will in His way. We should respect Him with the fear of the Lord, so that we know that in His anger against sin, He could kill us. That is why we should pray that He not correct us in His anger. If we are constantly submissive, He should not have to correct us that way.

Now, take these principles and apply them to how we correct children, young people, and other adults. If we want God to correct us gently, we should be gentle when we correct others. We should do the correction to build them up, not to tear them down or demean them. Our motive should be to help them to do the right thing, and be blessed by doing God's will. We should never correct anyone when we are angry. If we do, we are liable to say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing that will bring harm, not correction.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Jeremiah 12-14.