Friday 12 September 2014

What’s your reaction?

Today, I would like you to think about your reaction when someone confronts you.
The moment someone points out your mistake or error, do you agree and do you take the fight to change, to become better? Or do you get very angry at the person and harden your heart?
Now think about a situation where your husband, your pastor, or even your mother or a friend confronts you, pointing out your mistake, how do you react?
Indeed, it will make all the difference as for the result. See what happened with the first two kings of Israel, their stories were very similar with a totally different ending.
Saul and David were both humble and faithful, when they were chosen by God. They both reigned well in the beginning and they both sinned. The difference between Saul and David was in their reaction, when they were confronted for their sins.
Saul disobeyed God's command and when the prophet Samuel confronted him about it, he defended himself right away; he tried to make up excuses for his mistake and hardened his heart, which led him not to obtain God’s forgiveness, and to have a tragic ending.
David, in turn, committed adultery and when he found out that Bathsheba was pregnant, he got her husband killed i.e. he tried to hide his mistake somehow, to find a way out. But when the prophet Nathan went to David and condemned him for his sin, alleging the consequences, he acknowledged his mistake and begged for forgiveness and obtained it.
As we can see, the ending was very different, only because of the way that each one of them reacted to the confrontation.
Sometimes we ask God to show us what we need to improve; we say that we want to please Him but when He uses someone to confront us for our mistakes, the first reaction is to deny.
I'm not like that; "Who does she(he) think she(he) is to tell me such a thing"; "She has more defects than I, why is she pointing out mine?" Maybe these are the first sentences that comes to your mind, but it would be more helpful if you stop and think about what was said. Then, see if it really happens and seek to change.

I'm not saying that you will listen to everything or everyone because there are wicked people who like to criticize, and they do that with no intention to help. But if this comes from a person you know is looking out for you, who wants to help you, to open your eyes, then don't be like Saul who hardened his heart; humble yourself like David to accept, to acknowledge and to be able to change, because it will bless you.


And how about you, have you ever been confronted by someone?

6 comments:

Uche Azubike said...

Mrs Tania,

Your posts are like gold. Thank you so much for this post. This has been something I have been struggling with immensely - my reactions and I've slowly been making progress with it. This post has really helped me because now before I react, I'm going to think about who I'd rather be like, Saul or David.

Thank you so much x

sabrina said...

Ms Tania,

I absolutley loved this post as it really spoke to me and I'm sure others will agree !

Thank you x

Anonymous said...

This is a hard one for me because I don't always react in the best way. Even though I understand that I don't need to take on board everything everyone says to me, I have come to realise that I need to stop reacting emotionally. Because whether what they are saying is truthful or not I need to learn to not say the first thing that comes into my mind or my heart. When I get corrected I get defensive especially when I am being misunderstood; regardless of the case I have to learn to be humble and react rationally and learn to keep what I need and disregard what I don't.
Rajani, UK

Unknown said...

I face confrontations many times and I like listening to what the person has to tell me and go somewhere alone and if it requires me to cry I cry and then think, and it helps me in the end because after I let out all the pain inside, one thing I learned also is to stop answering back to someone who is trying to correct me because it makes matters worse. it always helps me because the people are watching out for my own good.

unami said...

When we are humble its easy for other people to help us when they see us taking the wrong direction because we are approachable.

Unknown said...

Many times I have been confronted by my friend and we agreed that we write paper what we think both of us should change.. It amazing that God put people together who are the same. Most of our flaws or mistakes character wise where the same.. We begin to work on them and today we are purely blessings of God in our Ministry.. God is at work

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