Look Past
From Pastor Kevin King
Some time ago, the Lord shared a phrase with me to help me receive criticism or correction from people. I really struggled to receive such things for a very long time because those things would scream "I’m wrong" - not wrong in the sense that I should always be right, but emotionally I would feel like a dope, unlikeable, unloveable, someone that is a burden to people’s lives by my mistakes, etc. I would get extremely angry at myself and the person who told me the criticism. The emotions were intense and felt like an all-out assault. It was difficult to endure.
I sought the Lord about it because I needed something to help me grow out of this. It was crippling. The Lord shared two things with me, and I wanted to expound a little on them. Firstly, He shared with me that I must be believing what those emotions were saying or I wouldn’t react that way. I would never consciously say that I was unlikeable or someone that is only a burden to people, but my emotional reaction said otherwise. If someone called me a wife beater and a beast for abusing my wife, I would laugh because I know in my heart of hearts I am not that. I don’t believe that at all. It might irritate me a bit thinking why someone would say that, but it would not invoke the emotional intensity described above. That directed me that I need to be more convinced that I am who my Father made me to be.
Ephesians 1:3-13 speaks about spiritual blessings and that we have been blessed with all of them. Spiritual blessings are not material things, but rather truths about our identity in the Lord, who we are. It says we’ve been chosen, predestined, adopted, given a second chance, our past mistakes will not be held against us, we've been made a member of God’s household, given an inheritance. Visually, the text paints the picture of a set of parents visiting an orphanage and choosing a young child to adopt. The parents are choosing the child; planning a good future for them; telling them, "Whatever happened to you before does not matter now, you’re our child now;" making them part of their family; etc. When those emotions would attack, I thought on these spiritual blessings to remind me that I was not what they said I was. Am I beyond being corrected or criticized, absolutely not. But to let that suggest I’m unloveable is a bit extreme.
Secondly, the Lord showed me something to help receive the instruction, especially if it was true. Recall, I’m not a wife beater, but if my wife expresses she wants something more out of our marriage and it’s true, then I need to be able to receive that and not emotionally implode. The Lord told me to forget who said it and how they said it and simply ask myself if what they were saying was true. If so, receive it and start to make the change. If not, don’t worry about it. Unlike the situation above where I had Ephesians to go to for reminding me of who God made me to be, this didn’t come with a scripture, but I knew it was true.
Well, the Lord did eventually give me a scripture to ground this saying. In Matthew 23:1-3 Jesus is telling a multitude of people that the Pharisees sit in Moses’s seat, or a place of authority, when it comes to the Old Testament scriptures. They’ve spent their lives studying to interpret and declare the scriptures. He then says in verse 3 to do what they say but do not do what they do. To do what someone says but not do what they do must mean that that person is a hypocrite. They know the right thing to tell you, but don’t live it themselves. Hypocrisy turns the stomach. Someone telling you to not be lazy while they’re lazy themselves is hard to take seriously. But truth is truth, no matter where it comes from. Jesus is essentially saying, the Pharisees know the truth, but don’t do it themselves. This makes it all about the pursuit of truth. So if truth is coming from someone who is a little hypocritical, forget who is telling you, and how they tell you, look past the source and just receive it and do it. In the end, it is still the truth.
