“The most difficult thing for any human seems to be to admit being wrong—to confess error of belief and conviction,” wrote Herbert W. Armstrong. Scientists studying the brain have concluded that people respond to correction and criticism in a similar way to physical pain.

But why should it be so hard for us to accept correction?

In Hebrews 12, the Apostle Paul writes that God is a Father who corrects His children. “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (verses 5-6).

Correction is a gift from God. If we receive correction, it means God is preparing us for sonship in His Family!

The Father loves His sons deeply. He does correct us, even intensely when we need it, because He loves us. We all have a lot of growing to do to achieve our potential and fulfill our calling. We all must receive correction. His correction is aimed at helping us see where we are off track so we can grow in righteousness.

Considering how sinful mankind is, doesn’t it make sense that God would need to correct us at times?

“But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (verse 8). Are you receiving correction from God? If we are not, we are not even considered His children!

What is your natural response to correction?

Most people immediately get defensive. We begin to justify ourselves. We think the critic doesn’t have the whole story. We reason why what we did was not that bad or was actually correct. We defend our actions. We answer back.

The Bible repeatedly warns against that response.

God tells us we need correction and reproof. We must learn to listen and heed. In fact, we should want correction.

God gives us a lot of reproof and correction in His Word, but we have to take it to receive its benefits. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

The question is, will you take that personally and put it to use in your life? It is not easy. Very few people are willing.

Do you really want to know what God thinks of you? Do you want His evaluation of your spiritual state? Do you want the truth?

We should always be actively seeking God’s view. Don’t make excuses.

We are all prone to self-justification. We all need to examine ourselves for it and be vigilant against it. We all need to ask God to help us overcome it. Accepting correction from God is the only way we stand a chance of avoiding self-deceit.

The Bible warns us repeatedly against deceiving ourselves. Our human nature wants to believe we are doing just fine spiritually. Our deceitful heart produces self-justification, pride and spiritual blindness. We fool ourselves and don’t even realize it.

Our Deceitful Heart

Think carefully on this verse: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Most people do not believe what God says here. They think the human heart is basically good. They could not be more wrong! The truth is, there is nothing more deceitful than a human heart!

That is why people think they are good. We like to think of ourselves as good even when we are doing things we know are wrong! We justify and flatter ourselves; we explain away our sins; we downplay our guilt.

The phrase “desperately wicked” should read “dangerously sick,” “incurably sick” or “sick unto death.” Can you see this in your own heart? We cannot trust our thinking.

When will we learn how deceitful our own minds are? Understanding this profound verse is more important than any education in this world.

Deceitful and sick hearts should not be trusted. Yet astoundingly, the human heart is the foundation of this world’s education and government. Our educators and leaders believe man is fundamentally good and trustworthy. They trust in evil human reasoning.

Look at the sickness in this world, and you see evidence everywhere of men trusting in sick human minds. Terrifying problems are mounting all around us—and still men trust in their own minds. It seems nothing can convince them we are off track. Deceitful, desperately wicked human hearts are leading this world to the point where, if Christ didn’t intervene, we would annihilate ourselves! (Matthew 24:21-22).

The number one problem of humanity today is that people don’t see their own terminal sickness. That is profound self-deceit.

This is what happens when people will not listen to God!

So God is forcing mankind to face the truth. Soon this world will be engulfed in a nuclear holocaust created by sick human minds. Only the worst time of suffering in history will get them to acknowledge the real problem! They will no longer be able to deny the fruits of their human reasoning. Then God can begin to teach them.

If you really understand the fundamental truth of Jeremiah 17:9, you will cry out to God every day to save you! You won’t let a day pass without intensely praying and studying for the help to overcome your fatally sick heart!

God ends verse 9 with the question, “Who can know it?” Only God knows the human heart. Only God can explain the mind and emotions of man. Our greatest need is to let God reveal our own sickness and heal it.

Until we learn this lesson, we are living under a curse (verse 5). We will remain deceived as long as we continue to look to men—and that includes trusting in our own reasoning.

“I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (verse 10). Look at the terrible, devastating fruits of our ways and our doings! Following our hearts is causing all the world’s problems and leading to nuclear war!

There is no hope in man. There is endless hope in God.

Vanity of Vanities

Human nature is naturally vain. “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2; 12:8). It is easy to get an inflated view of ourselves. We are all prone to self-righteousness, which includes thinking too highly of our works, relying on our own deeds, our own righteousness.

That is a powerful form of self-deceit. “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Galatians 6:3). Pride, vanity, self-righteousness, overestimation of oneself—all are self-deception that we need to examine ourselves for and rid ourselves of.

Such self-deceit and self-righteousness push God right out of the picture. They blind us to God. We can’t even see Him! Our thoughts become too filled with self and leave too little room for God. We break the First Commandment by placing self ahead of God! God passionately hates that because He is a jealous God who loves us.

Look at the example of Job. He was quite a righteous man. But when he did good deeds, he took the credit. He liked to be seen as good by other people (e.g. Job 29:14). He gave his charity to show what a terrific guy he was—rather than what a terrific God we serve! His motive was to exalt himself, not God (Job 32:1-2).

God helped Job overcome his problem by putting him through some excruciating trials. That brought Job’s sins right to the surface: self-justification, self-exaltation, self-righteousness. God then gave Job an awe-inspiring glimpse into His own immense and fearsome power, the vast scale of His creation, His command of the elements, His provision for all creatures, His majesty and rulership (Job 38-41).

Once Job realized his own insignificance next to God’s all-encompassing greatness, he could see God! “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).

The more clearly we see God—in all His power, judgment, love, mercy and excellence—the less impressed with ourselves we will be. And the more open we will be to listening to God and accepting His correction.

See Your Sin

Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The sharper your picture of God in all His glory, the better you will see how far short of the glory of God you fall!

Sin is the transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4). God’s law is holy, just and good (Romans 7:12). It is “perfect, converting the soul,” more desirable than fine gold, sweeter than honey (Psalm 19:7, 10). God gave us His commandments, statutes and judgments to help us see where we are not thinking like Him, where we need to change. “Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward” (verse 11).

Do you really see the sin in your life? “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults” (verse 12). Yes, because of our deceitful heart, it is very difficult to truly see our sins. In fact, it takes a miracle from God. We need God to show us our errors and to cleanse us from our hidden faults and those sins we can’t even recognize. God must open our eyes, because “[e]very way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2).

Naturally we convince ourselves that our faults aren’t that serious. This is pure self-deception. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). There it is again! Don’t fall into the trap of such blindness. God commands us to continually repent in prayer for our sins so He can cleanse us (verse 9).

“Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression” (Psalm 19:13). Yes, when we break God’s law, sin has dominion over us—it rules us! Jesus Christ said, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” (John 8:34). Sin enslaves us in bondage (Romans 6:16; 2 Peter 2:19). Only God can free us from that bondage.

God’s law is a “perfect law of liberty” that leads to freedom! (James 1:25). Most religions are in bondage because they reject God’s law and call it freedom! Men routinely think bondage is freedom—intellectually and spiritually.

Only the truth will set us free (John 8:32). And God’s Word is truth (John 17:17).

One of the easiest ways to deceive ourselves is simply to hear God’s Word and fail to apply it. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). You can read about this in Chapter 2 of my booklet How to Be an Overcomer, “Are You Deceiving Yourself?”

“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain” (verse 26). A lot of religion is worthless because people aren’t controlling their tongues or their lives. They are deceiving their own hearts.

We may fool ourselves for a while, but in the end, the truth will come out. God will judge us according to our works. All pretense and hypocrisy will be exposed. “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is” (1 Corinthians 3:13). How much better for us to learn now where we are off track than to wait until our sins are revealed by fire!

We must do all we can to avoid the common, deadly sin of deceiving ourselves. “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. … The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. …” (verses 18-21).

How different our human perspective is from God’s! And how crucial it is that we humble ourselves and ask God to show us where we are deceiving ourselves and to help us see reality!

A Broken Spirit

If we have godly wisdom, James 3:17 says we are “easy to be intreated.” Think of King David. He committed adultery, caused a man’s murder, and lied about it! Major sins. Yet when the Prophet Nathan confronted him, what were his first words? “I have sinned against the Lord” (see 2 Samuel 12:7-13). He didn’t fight God. He accepted the correction and repented immediately.

What a beautiful attitude! Nathan responded, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die” (verse 13). David still faced some consequences, but his repentance saved his life.

David gives us the most powerful example of repentance in the Bible. Read Psalm 51, his psalm of repentance. He had “a broken and a contrite heart” (verse 17). We must be teachable and have a broken and contrite spirit for God to be able to lead us and use us. God wants to guide you as His son or daughter, but He cannot do it if you lack a broken spirit. You must allow God to convict you of your sins and teach you. This attitude was fundamental to David’s repentance, and it is a big reason why God considered him “a man after mine own heart” (Acts 13:22).

David committed some terrible sins. That didn’t prevent God from loving him! But He did correct David severely.

Hebrews 4:12 says that “the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” God’s Word reveals our true thoughts and intents. It exposes what is going on in our mind. It helps us face the truth about our own heart and to see how we are ruled by human nature. It reveals where we are evil so we can change!

That is uncomfortable—but it is so necessary and beautiful. It leads to life!

“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11). When we accept correction, it produces wonderful fruit in our life.

Accept Correction

Are you willing to be corrected?

“The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding” (Proverbs 15:31-32; see also Proverbs 13:18; 10:17). Proverbs 12:1 says if we refuse reproof, we are stupid.

How can Christ save us if we do not accept His correction? How can you start as a terrible, evil, ugly human being and expect to grow in character without receiving correction?

What happens if God shows us where we are wrong, and we don’t accept it? That is a deadly serious problem!

Proverbs 15:10 says, “Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die.” In the end, your eternal life depends on loving and accepting God’s reproof!

“He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Proverbs 29:1). That is talking about eternal death. Nothing is more serious!

Yet so many people are making this mistake. When they are in the nuclear holocaust, they will no longer play games of self-deceit! God is going to allow the Great Tribulation to come upon this world in order to crush all hope man has in himself and turn him to hope in God.

You need to learn this lesson today—before that calamity.

Heed God’s warnings. Realize that self-deception is our natural inclination due to our deceitful heart, our pride and our failure to apply God’s truth. Avoid that snare. Ask God to search your heart (Psalm 139:23-24). Accept the loving rebuke and correction of your heavenly Father. Confess your sins honestly. And act on God’s Word.