Smart or Stupid - Today's Daily Devotional March 25th, 2010

Bible Reading - Exodus 36, John 15, Proverbs 12, Ephesians 5

Smart or Stupid

Do you have any of those friends that think they know it all and you can't tell them anything new or if you do tell them something new they act like they already knew it. Or how about someone that is always bucking authority or discipline in their life and anytime you try to point them in the right direction they get irritated with you? These people are stupid!

Now before you get mad at me first get that person you are thinking about out of your head and then look here at Proverbs 12:1, "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid". The word reproof here means to rebuke and it is implying that those who hate correction or learning something new through correction or other means is an idiot. Please notice I am not calling those who hate reproof idiots, The Word of God is.

This scripture, over the past 12 years, has become a challenging one for me. I have come to realize that even if those who are rebuking were misinformed I can still receive what they are saying and learn something from it. Maybe what you learn has nothing at all to do with what the person was rebuking you about but you can still learn through it. I know for me that there have been plenty of times when I got rebuked for something I never should have but on the other hand there are more times I did not get rebuked when I definitely should have. So I chalk it all up to experience, learn to love discipline and move on, because if not I am stupid.

Hebrews 12:11 says, "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it". There are so many rewards for enduring discipline rather than bucking it. Like David, Joseph and so many others in the Bible whether the rebuking was misguided or not I have learned most of my valuable life's lessons through seasons of correction and rebuke. I have learned that there were some things in me that God wanted to root out. I have learned how I will handle future situations with others that I need to challenge and rebuke. I have learned some things I will and will not do. I have learned how I will interact with different personality types and how I will discipline my own children. Because I have learned to love discipline I have become a much smarter person. I think the only thing I wish as I look back is that I would have learned this lesson a lot sooner. There was a season when I hated rebuke therefore there was some stupid God had to get out of me. I think one of the greatest lessons I learned was that there is no point in bucking authority and rebuke because not only do you look stupid but according to the Bible you are stupid.

Are you smart or stupid?

Tomorrows Bible Reading - Exodus 37, John 16, Proverbs 13, Ephesians 6

Dream Big
Ben