It is so hard not to defend yourself when you feel like you are being attacked. When someone tells you something you did wrong or something they think you did wrong, or how you acted mean, prideful, greedy, were rude, judgmental, irresponsible, or just selfish.

It is hard not to want to react, to justify, to make excuses, or tell them how they are wrong, mean, prideful, greedy, rude, judgmental, irresponsible, or selfish. (We tend to mirror other people’s words and actions.)

In our human nature we are all wrong, mean, prideful, greedy, rude, judgmental, irresponsible, and selfish, and so many other things, sometimes or most of the time.

It is often easy to see how or where other people are wrong, being mean, prideful, greedy, rude, judgmental, irresponsible, selfish and miss how we ourselves are acting that way.

When this happens, some of us have the tendency to spiral into self-pity, depression or into thinking we are not good and never will be.

But. Thankfully. God.

When we are willing to TRUST God in all things. When we are willing to take everything to Him. Do some self-evaluation and allow Him to evaluate us. He will use all things in our life for our good and His glory.

We do not have to stay in self-pity or depression or tell ourselves we are no good because of the love of Jesus Christ, who died to save us from our sin. His grace and mercy save us from our wrongness, our mean-spirit, our pride-fulness, greediness, rudeness, our being judgmental, our irresponsibility, and our downright selfishness was all taken care of by the love of Jesus on the cross.

Now that does not mean we are off the hook. If we have chosen Jesus as our Savior, His Spirit lives inside us. Praise! The Holy Spirit in us can change us! When we rely on, depend on, admit our need for help, the Holy Spirit equips, enables, and empowers us. As we spend time in God’s Word, as we talk to God, as we listen for God, as we sit in His Presence and soak up His love, we are changed. It is a wonderous miracle and mystery!

In this world we will never reach perfection, but we can be in the process of becoming more like Jesus. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “God’s grace is sufficient for you, for God’s power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul says, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, I am strong.” “Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT

The Bible also tells us to, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8) It is only through Christ-like love that we can hear when people tell us we were wrong, or being mean, prideful, greedy, rude, irresponsible, or selfish. We exemplify Christ-like love when we have been transformed by it because of the time we have spent with God then we overflow with love in all situation. Most of the time, we are still human.

The Holy Spirit in us helps us to respond not react. The Holy Spirit helps us to apply the three A’s they use in AA meetings: awareness, acceptance, and action.

When we are made aware, we need to step back and ask ourselves is this true. The Holy Spirit will give us discernment if we ask Him. If it is true, we need to accept it, without having a pity party or thinking we have no hope. We need to decide to take action, to pray and search the scripture and allow God to transform us with His grace and love. Then over time this process will become easier and a more natural response when we are confronted.

We practice and practice and practice until it becomes natural.

And we shouldn’t be surprised when we are confronted. This is all part of it. We are flawed human beings who live in a flawed world with other flawed human being. If we choose to see confrontation as an opportunity to learn, to grow, to improve instead of being offended by it, it will not seem so bad. It is all in how we think about it.

This is not our home. Our home is in heaven, and we need to live to the best of our abilities here on this earth shining the Light of Jesus until we are called home. It is so easy to get caught up in this world and our own wants that we miss the beauty of the work of God here and now. We can experience heaven on earth when we live in step with God’s Truth trusting Him with all our life!

I wonder if God uses situations like someone correcting us or pointing out an area we could improve on to bring us down to size…to help us realize and remember we do not have it as together as we think and that we desperately need Him!

Keep seeking and discovering!