FW: Captured by Grace Devotionals Day 14

Make Changes, Not Excuses

 

My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction.

Proverbs 3:11

 

 

In 1986, as a fifteen-year-old, Tommy Moe was invited to be part of the U.S. ski team. But he was caught sneaking out of camp to smoke marijuana and kicked off the team. Tommy’s father, an Alaskan construction worker, ordered him to come home. After a few months of laboring twelve to sixteen hours a day in the Arctic summer, his father asked him if he’d rather be a construction worker or part of the ski team training in Argentina. “It humbled me up pretty fast,” Tommy said. And it showed. At the 1996 Olympics, he took gold in the men’s downhill.

 

How do you respond to your heavenly Father’s correction? If we are not willing to confront our own sin, or be confronted by others, we are not yet as spiritually mature as we should be. God may correct us through a friend, a boss, a coach, a pastor—or He may put the need for self-correction in our own heart. Just think what would have happened to the gospel message if the apostle Paul had not responded to Christ’s confrontation on the Damascus road (Acts 9). When God shows you that change is needed in your life, don’t make excuses. Instead, make the change.

 

An excuse is nothing more than an argument disguised as a reason.

 

 

You must learn to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

Jay Adams

 

Recommended Reading: Hebrews 12:3-11