When we read the Bible with an eye toward receiving direction for our lives, we can be sure that we will get some confrontation. I don't like being confronted by the Bible, do you? God helps us to face up to issues in our lives that we don't always want to face. When I read the Bible and it confronts me on things I need to change, I can know it's from God and I can ask Him to help me deal with it. How are you at receiving criticism from other people? I have to admit, I'm not good at it. Does the Bible have anything to say about this? Yes! Let's listen to today's passage together and then consider what it tells us:

If you listen to constructive criticism, you will be at home among the wise. If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding. (Prov. 15:31-32 NLT)

The Scriptures tells us that if we want to grow in our relationship with God, we must learn to listen to "constructive criticism." You might read this as an escape clause. If we don't like the criticism we can simply say it wasn’t constructive! The meaning though, is that we must learn to receive criticism and correction. Okay, you might say, if I have to hear it, I want to hear it from my friends. If your friends are like mine, they might like you too much to tell you. If your friends like you too much to tell you what's wrong, I have a suggestion: be willing to hear it from someone who doesn’t like you. They’re willing to tell you and they’ve probably thought a lot about it! All of us need to learn to accept correction; that's part of maturing in God and it's part of learning humility. When we seek to become humble, we will certainly come into contact with areas in our lives that need correction. God will help you and me with that; all we have to do is ask Him.

Remember: humility always wins with God!