{"id":9686,"date":"2021-07-19T05:13:49","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T05:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=9686"},"modified":"2021-07-19T05:13:51","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T05:13:51","slug":"stay-focussed-ignore-the-destructive-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/?p=9686","title":{"rendered":"Stay focussed – ignore the destructive critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

When David arrived at the battlefield with supplies not everyone was excited to see him or to hear him ask questions about fighting the giant. David\u2019s oldest brother, Eliab, became angry at David and accused him of having wrong motives, telling David that he was only a shepherd boy, and a wicked and conceited one at that. Clearly, Eliab was harboring some offense in his heart toward David one being overlooked as the future King of Israel. In that day, being the eldest male child was a position of great significance. It came with responsibility and authority within the family.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Not only did David receive harsh criticism from his brother, but he also received negative and critical feedback from King Saul. When David presented his idea to the king, Saul replied, \u201cYou are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth\u201d (1 Sam. 17:33). Yet David felt so confident in God\u2019s calling that even the king\u2019s criticism seems to have had little impact on him. For David, showing up to face Goliath involved ignoring the criticism and questioning of his brothers and King Saul and refusing to give in to the fears that often accompany criticism from others.<\/span><\/p>\n

To face the giants in our lives, we too will need to ignore the critics.<\/b> Success brings the fears and doubts of insecure people to light. The anointing always stirs up criticism. This was true of Eliab and doubly true of Saul. Later, David\u2019s success caused such fear and jealousy in Saul that Saul tried to kill David because he saw him as a threat to his throne. For this reason, when we show up to fight giants in our lives, we need to be prepared for criticism from others.<\/span><\/p>\n

This criticism can manifest as harsh words and dissension disguised as input or correction, it is destructive. It can look like questioning our character or our ability to succeed. Regardless, criticism serves one purpose\u2014to introduce fear into the situation in an attempt to sabotage a person\u2019s success. Insecure people don\u2019t like to see others succeed, because it challenges their lifestyle. Another person\u2019s success creates a contrast to their own experience and perhaps lesser degree of success.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this instance, the criticism David received was all designed to keep him from his destiny as a giant killer. His response to these critics is an example to us. David was focused on his assignment. Stay focussed!<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

adapted from \u201cGiant Slayers\u2019 by Leif Hetland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When David arrived at the battlefield with supplies not everyone was excited to see him or to hear him ask questions about fighting the giant. David\u2019s oldest brother, Eliab, became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19,51,71,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-fear","category-identity","category-kingdom","category-mindset"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9687,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9686\/revisions\/9687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cassowary.unitingchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}