Dealing with criticism and succeeding....

 I have always known the old saying, "the only person who doesn't make a mistake or get in trouble is the person who does nothing at all."  I have often reminded Gail of this when something he has done with good intent doesn't turn out like he wanted it to - when failure comes or criticism from others. I recently wrote about doing the right thing. This is a follow up and continuation of 'doing the right thing' and being victorious thru criticism

The ideas for this blog today come again from Dr. Robert Jeffress' Daily Devotional. Jeffress wrote several devotions on criticism.  I hope to recap to you what he said:

- if you have a dream, you will experience opposition and the greater your goal or dream, the greater your opposition.  Are you trying to do the right thing and live out God's will for your life?  You will get criticised.

- discern the motive of the critic, seek God to discern the cause of the criticism.  Pv. 27:6 Is the critic a friend tying to help you?  Is there truth in what they are telling you? Do you need to heed his criticism? OR maybe the critic is trying to cause harm.  Is there insecurity or jealousy on the part of the critic? Or look deeper into the critics life and see if he is struggling with somethings himself. Is he hurting and struggling with something? Always pray for them and then see if you can help in someway. IF you discern they are trying to harm you, then you are probably in the middle of a spiritual war and Satan is using them to try to harm you. Rev. 12:10

-understand your critic will try to attack you personally, will try to stop you from accomplishing your goal, and may attack your motive

-to gain victory:discern the cause for the criticism, deliver your critic to God, and keep moving forward to fulfill your God-given goal.  

- sometimes you answer your critics and sometimes you just don't cast your pearls before swine (waste your wisdom). When you answer them make sure you speak softly and slowly so as to put the fire out rather than stir it up.

- the goal of criticism is destruction. The greater your goal is, the greater the criticism.  If you are getting more and more criticism, you can probably know you are in the middle of God's will!!