We close out a full week with a really good question from a podcast listener named Matt

Hello, Pastor John, how have you dealt with receiving feedback and criticism from people

you don't really respect even if what they're saying has some truthfulness in it or another

way of asking it is this, how have you dealt with receiving feedback and criticism from

people who are just simply not good at giving feedback in a loving and encouraging way.

What do you say? Good question. No criticism is pleasant to receive and all of us have

a great spiritual work to do in our hearts, in humbling ourselves under God's mighty

hand. As Peter says in chapter 5 of his first letter, and as Philippians 2 says, counting

others more significant than ourselves and taking thought for the interests of others not

just our own and emptying ourselves the way Christ emptied himself to become a servant.

So we need to overcome our pride that makes it so difficult to be corrected. Oom how

we hate to be corrected, that is emotionally it just feels so bad and yet it's so good

for us sometimes. If we don't overcome that pride, we will lose our usefulness in God's

service, we'll never grow beyond the mistakes we make and we might even make shipwreck

of our faith. But if I understand Matt's question correctly and it could be wrong here,

is that he's not just asking how we can be humble enough to receive criticism and profit

from it, he's asking about that particular relationship where the criticism is delivered

in a way that is not encouraging or hopeful or loving as far as he can tell. And my guess

is, it's just a guess, that he is asking this about a relationship with someone who is

close to him because the criticism that comes to us from a distance, say through social

media, isn't usually as painful as the criticism that comes from a family member or a friend

or a colleague at work or church. And I think I understand the situation because I know there

...