Why Is God Important When Receiving Criticism?

I posted a thought earlier today in which I stated that God is important to the process of receiving criticism in a healthy way.

Why is this true?

In order to understand how God can help us in this area of our lives, it is helpful to start with this realization:  Criticism feels threatening to us.

There is a part of our brain that perceives almost any kind of criticism to be a threat.  Even if the person who is offering the criticism does not mean to be threatening, it feels that way to us.  And so there’s a natural defensiveness that rises up in us when we first hear a criticism.

In a fundamental way, what we’re talking about is, fear.  Most of the time, when we receive criticism there is some measure of fear that is stirred in us.  That’s why sometimes we can see someone be criticized in a very minor and gentle way and yet their reaction to the criticism seems extreme.

We look and think, “Why is this person reacting in such a volatile way to such a minor criticism?  What’s going on here?  Why such a strong response?” 

The answer is that the person is afraid.  The strong reaction is coming from fear.

This is where God is so important.  God drives out fear.  How does He do this?  With His love.  God’s love for us is perfect, unfailing, and unending.  And the Bible tells us that, “…love [real love, God’s love] has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.”  1John 4:18.  The last part of that verse is expressed this way in the NIV translation, “Perfect love drives out fear.:”

When you don’t really believe that God loves you, you will experience more fear in life.  If you don’t believe that God loves you, you will have a hard time receiving any kind of constructive criticism because of the fear that it will generate in you.

On the other hand, the more convinced you are that God loves you, the less fear you will experience.  If you are really convinced that God loves you, you will be more able to hear criticisms without anger and melt downs and furious denials because when you realize that God loves you, you realize that “it’s alright”.  You will be able to say to yourself, “The fact that I’m receiving some criticism is alright.  The fact that I have areas in which I need to grow is alright.”

The person who truly knows God’s love calmly understands that criticism is alright because we know that our inherent worth and value as a human being is not based on the fact that we’re imperfect and still have room to grow.  Our inherent worth and value as a human being comes from this unshakable truth: God loves me.

I’m going to repeat that last sentence because it’s very important to think about it:  Our inherent worth and value as a human being comes from this unshakable truth: God loves me.

Do you believe that God loves you?  Do you?  Really?  Please note: I’m not asking if you know words about God’s love—I realize that you know those words—I’m asking if you have a true conviction in your heart that God loves you?

If you do then you can receive criticism graciously. 

And if you can receive criticism graciously, congratulations!  That means you’re in a good place to grow.