It is Easier to 'Shoot the Messenger' - Gal 4:11-32

 Have you ever been confronted with something that hurt you, made you angry, and rattled you to your core... because it was true? So have I. Most of us have. Paul suffered a lot for sharing the Truth with the Gentiles. In Galatians 4:16 he asks, "Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" Paul's heart was that no one would walk this walk in vein. He loved the people that he wrote to far too much to give them anything less than the truth - and sometimes it hurt. The Galatians were being excluded; left out, in order to sway them and their love in another direction. Paul loved his audience enough to tell them the truth concerning the matter. It was up to his audience to receive it or not. Are we good receivers of the truth, even when it is painful? Or do we simply 'shoot the messenger' when confronted with rebuke?
King Solomon said in Proverbs 8:9, "Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you."
  Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. LORD, give us the strength to hear the truth with open heart. Make us wise man and women, able to hear rebuke and love the person doing the rebuking. Help us to love the person telling us the truth that we need to hear, and thank him or her for loving us enough to bring it to us. Most of all, give us the grace and mercy to walk out those truths when we hear them.

May the Lord bless you and keep you,

Shabbat shalom!