How Do You Deal With Your Critics? (MacArthur)

John MacArthur preached on “The Centrality of Forgiveness in Unity” last year in TMC Faculty/Staff chapel and it was so beneficial that copies were made for everyone.  Fortunately, I’m on the list and was mailed a copy.  The whole message is good, but I especially liked this portion and so I typed it out and made an audio clip (mp3) from the CD for you, my dear readers.

And then one final thought.  And maybe this is the most important one for you to keep in mind.  All the injuries committed against you, all the injustices committed against you, all the offenses committed against you are your trials by which God perfects you. 

You have to change how you view them.  People often say to me, How do you deal with your critics?  How do you deal with people that say terrible things about you?  How do you deal with people that lie about you?  How do you deal with people that put stuff on the internet that is not true about you?  How do you deal with that? 

The simple answer is this.  Look, I’m not perfect.  I need perfecting.  And whatever God chooses to allow to come against me I have to embrace as a trial which in the purposes of God is designed for me to be more like Christ.

So you embrace those things.  You felt like you were not treated right.  You felt like you were treated in an unfair way.  You felt like you were misrepresented.  You felt like you were misunderstood.

Oh my, I hear that, that’s a daily thing for me.  You would be amazed at what people say I said.  Or say I did, or didn’t do.  All those injuries, all those offenses, all those assaults and attacks are the trials that perfect me.  That’s why James said, “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials.”  Because those are the things that perfect your faith.

Peter said it this way, 1 Peter 5:10, “After you have suffered a while, the Lord make you perfect.” Or Paul said it in 2 Corinthians 12:7 that he was content with persecutions, trials, suffering.  Because when he was weak then he was strong.  God’s strength is perfected in his weakness.

So embrace all of those iniquities in life.  Embrace all of those things that don’t seem fair to you.  Embrace all of the false accusations, all the offenses against you, all the sins against you.  Embrace them.  They are the God-permitted trials which when responded to correctly become the very things that make you strong.