We know we’re not perfect. And generally this keeps us humble and willing to receive feedback from others. But wisdom reminds us to still guard our hearts and not merely accept the judgment of others uncritically. We must have the courage to reject lies and only allow God’s truth to penetrate our souls.
To be sure, it’s arrogance and pride that would keep us from readily admitting our blindspots and shortcomings. We have plenty of room to grow, and often critiques and challenges are opportunities for just this. Perhaps more often than not, this is the true heart behind our wife’s nagging and criticism, for example. She knows we can be better and she’s trying to call this out, however imperfect her attempts.
But, while giving her the benefit of the doubt, we must still be careful about what we allow into our hearts. And when she starts accusing and blaming us for things that are not true, we must resist. This is not to play the blame game and start pointing out her shortcomings. Rather, initially, it’s just protecting our own hearts from anything that is not of God.
On the one hand, we freely accept good faith criticism as this allows us to grow. But we have a duty to filter these criticisms through God’s truth – holding on to what is true and rejecting the rest. We risk believing lies otherwise. For example, we come to believe that we’re selfish, immature, or toxic based on the opinions of others when this is not the truth God has spoken over us. We must treat these as lies from the pit of hell and reject them as such. We’re robbed of our ability to bring more life and goodness into the world when we don’t.
In the end, humbly accept the good faith criticisms that allow you to grow. But guard your heart by rejecting any judgment on your soul that is not of God.
Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash
