But David persisted. "I have been taking care of my father's sheep and goats," he said. "When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I'll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!" -- 1Samuel 17: 34-37 (NLT)
But David persisted. Beloved we cannot give up in the face of the critical spirit. I can guarantee you that you will not succeed at 100% of the things you refuse to try. If God provides the vision then God will provide the resources to accomplish that vision. Look at the reaction here from David -- who is it focused on? Not himself but his God. Within our own power we can do nothing but through God we can accomplish all things. There is nothing worse than unmet potential. God did not save us to sit in a pew and sing kumbya until Jesus comes back. Far too many Christians bury the talent the Master has entrusted to them under the excuse of "I can't." Many times behind the "I can't" is a history of being told -- "you can't." The big secret here we can learn from David is that if we focus on ourselves and our human frailties then maybe we will be proven right -- we can't. David however focused on God and what God can accomplish and whenever we do that the answer is HE CAN.
Our last example reminds us that our Lord and Savior has gone through everything we might come up against in this life including the critical spirit. The key verses tell us of the time He went back home to Nazareth. He was teaching in the synagogues and while many were amazed the majority rejected Him because they had grown up with Him and His relatives still lived there. In their finite minds they could not imagine an infinite God. In their natural understanding they could not comprehend the supernatural. Even the miracles they saw with their own eyes could not help them overcome their prejudices. Now here is the teachable point beloved. The more you step out for Jesus the more people will come against it. People who knew who you were before you came to the Lord. People will remind you of your past as a means to discourage your future. But all they know is a person that no longer exists:
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! -- 2Corinthians 5: 16-17 (NLT)
Beloved -- it does not matter who you once were! Do we truly understand this today? It does not matter who you were it only matters who you ARE in Christ. You are a new person. That old life people want to keep hanging around your neck is the very thing that Christ went to the cross for.
You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. -- Colossians 2: 13-15 (NLT)
The things that people want to use to hold you down are the very things Christ died for. He canceled the charges others want to make towards you. He nailed them to the cross! By doing so he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities but we still think that our old next door neighbor can say something to hurt us? Or our ex boyfriend. Or anyone else from our past who does not understand that the person they are being critical of no longer exists!
Jesus would soon leave His hometown, amazed at the disbelief of the people. The Bible says that it was the disbelief that prevented Jesus from performing many miracles. The last lesson here for us is that in the face of the criticisms and unbelief -- just move on.
Then Jesus told them, "A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family." And because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. -- Mark 6: 4-6 (NLT)
He did what He could but then He moved on. Likewise we need to learn this valuable lesson. Sometimes we need to move on from the very people that would continue to hinder our walk with God and criticize what He is trying to do through us. God always has another level for us to go to but sometimes we need to leave some people behind. Everyone's walk is different. Maybe God will bring people back together in the future but in the present -- we need to be following God and God alone.
Beloved, we will find no shortage of people who will want to speak negatively into our lives and our walk with God. Even within the church walls there is no shortage. We need to use the examples God has provided for us in His Word as our guidelines for how to deal with it. Like Saul we need to ignore the voices and show them the mercy they do not show towards us, realizing that our successes come from God. Like David we need to overcome those who would marginalize us by accepting that God looks at us differently and persist through the negativity. We cannot give up. Like Jesus Himself, we need to do what we can for those who refuse to believe in what God can do through us and move on. Sometimes, we need to give people the gift of goodbye. Those that seek to criticize through the lens of human reasoning need to be greeted with the impossibilities of the God we serve. We need to always use Jesus as our prime example:
For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. -- 1Peter 2: 21-24 (NLT)
Turn to the Guardian of your souls today and see the new thing He is doing through the new creation He has made in you.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- February 27, 2013
