TOPIC: STOP BEING DEFENSIVE.
BIBLE VERSE: James 1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
Being defensive means, always having a reason (whether the truth or not) to defend your actions or reactions.
Do you often suspect that others are thinking ill of you?
• Do you generally try to protect yourself from pain by keeping a safe distance from others?
• Do you feel the overwhelming need to make sure others know you were right in a particular circumstance?
• Do you usually get offended when someone offers even "constructive criticism"?
If you had to answer 'yes’ to any of these questions, I suggest that you might well have a problem with defensiveness. Somehow, all of us are guilty of defensiveness.
Defensiveness is like pride. It hinders us from growing and developing ourselves. It makes a man to repeat his mistakes on daily basis. It causes someone to always lie in other to defend himself. It is a sinker. I've observed from those that have worked and are still working with me, that any man given to defensiveness, will always find it hard to learn new things. He is always having a reason why he has to make the same old mistake again and again.
The truth is that, you can defeat defensiveness. Consciously observe yourself to know the area you are a victim of it, and discipline yourself to stop being over defensive. Being over defensive makes you to speak the "true" and not the "truth". You look for any available cover-up story to tell. You end up pleasing man and displeasing God.
You are not a failure until you start giving excuses.
PRAYER: Lord, help me to overcome the habit of defensiveness. Give me a learner's heart.
ACTION POINT: Try To Take Corrections When You Have To. Avoid Defending Yourself When Is Not Really Necessary.
