Honest Words … But Said in Love!

Numbers 28; Numbers 29; Mark 8
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Scripture

Mark 8

14 But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. 15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
16 At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. 17 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? 19 When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?” “Twelve,” they said.

20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they said.
21 “Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.

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33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Observation

Jesus speaks honest words of rebuke to his disciples but it is done in love. We need to be honest with people and sometimes that means saying pretty hard stuff to them. Sometimes people need to be rebuked they need to be corrected. We all need for people to be honest with us. We all need to be corrected and rebuked sometimes. But it all has to be done in a way that is helpful and it all has to be done in love.

I have found that sometimes waiting and not correcting someone when I should have only causes me to lose it with that person when I finally talk to him or her about the problem. I needed to be honest with them sooner rather than putting off the unpleasant task of correcting them.

Jesus was able to tell Peter, “Get away from me, Satan” and yet Peter knew that Jesus still loved him. I have some guys in my life that love me enough to correct me. My wife sure loves me enough to correct me and I am glad that she is strong enough to rebuke me when I need it. All of us need for people to be honest with us but they need to correct us in love. Jesus is a great example of how it is done.

Application

I will ask God for the ability to confront people when I need to and not wait until it becomes more of a problem.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, you know that I am living out this principle right now. I have a person that I needed to correct. I hope that I corrected them in love and I hope that they will be able to accept that correction and change their behavior. Help me to be able to love people even when they frustrate the daylights out of me. Give me a huge amount of love for those that test my patience and for those that are real pains. I pray for Your Power to be revealed today as we worship You. You are the mighty God and nothing is too hard for You. Amen

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