June 22

Amos 7
2 Kings 14, 15

No one wants to hear bad news. No one wants to hear that they are doing something wrong. Unfortunately, that's a part of life that all of us have to learn how to handle graciously.

In Amos 7, Amaziah the priest did not appreciate the message that Amos was delivering to Israel. He accused Amos of conspiring against them and told him to get out of Israel. Amos replied by saying that he was not a prophet, but a simple shepherd. But when the Lord called him to declared the truth to Israel, he had no choice except to obey. He told Amaziah that he would lose everything that Israel would be taken from their land.

It's so easy to fall into a pattern of defensiveness when our mistakes and faults are pointed out. We shut our ears and hearts to any kind of criticism because we don't want to be wrong about anything. Amaziah reacted like many of us may have. He wanted the "negative" message to disappear.

We cannot change the fact that we will make mistakes and people will point them out to us. We cannot change the fact that we will receive bad news at times. What we can change is how we respond. Think about the people in Nineveh that Jonah prophesied to. When they heard that God was going to destroy their city, they immediately responded by repenting of their sins and begging God to forgive them. They turned their hearts to God in a time of trouble. And because they repented, God spared them from destruction. What if the people of Israel had reacted the same way when they heard Amos' message? It's possible God may have spared them too.

Ask God to help you respond to correction and bad news in a more gracious way. It maybe God trying to teach you something important.