How To Handle Your Critics

1 Samuel 30:1-20

Key verse: "And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God."

We all have them... No matter how hard you try to do right there's always someone with a critical spirit that will have something negative to say about what you do. For a biblical example consider Job; by God's own testimony Job was "perfect and upright" yet when his so called, "friends" show up, (which Job later refers to as miserable comforters) they have nothing but criticism for the suffering servant of God. David is faced with the some of the same issues in the text when he and his men return from the land of the Philistines and find that the Amalekites had taken captive their wives and children and burned everything with fire and the men that were with David spoke of stoning him. Let's walk through this chapter and see some truths about how to handle these issues. 

• The Reasons For The Criticism -
  • A Misguided Decision - a look back at the previous chapter and you will find that David had been attempting to help the Philistines fight against Israel because of his broken relationship with king Saul. The first thing we all must do is "consider the criticism" because sometimes we might need to hear it.
    
  • A Military Defeat - knowing the full story of David's entire life, even the areas where he failed God, David must have thought that his decision was right as the leader of this group of warriors; and more often times than not, David was in center of God's will for his life, but nonetheless David is facing a crowd of men that thought otherwise. There will always be a crowd that thinks they can do it better or if they were in charge the outcome would  be different.
    
  • A Monumental Discouragement - one truth I am reminded of from this situation is "hurting people, hurt people". Sometimes people are critical because they are dealing with discouragement in their own lives. David's men here were grieving greatly and maybe that's why they all turned against him. 
    
• The Reaction To The Criticism - (Our key verse shows us how we should respond)
  • A Humble Heart - David had lost just as much as the other grieving men and he himself was hurting and here the men that once stood by him are now standing against him. David is toting a load upon his shoulders in this moment but he doesn't allow his own pain to cause him to start pointing his finger back at them. M.R. Dehaan, a great preacher from years ago said, "99% of people with a critical spirit who go around pointing fingers at other people do so to divert the attention away from their own faults." Instead of looking around hastily to find someone to blame, David looks up and encourages himself in the Lord. 
    
  • A Hopeful Heart - simply put, things looked grim in this moment of David's life. He is being blamed and criticized by everyone around him but in the middle of it all David knows who is really in control, the one who knows the intents of the heart and the one who could make this situation right again... GOD. Sometimes just knowing that God knows, is all we really need to know, no matter what anyone else thinks they might know!
    
• The Results of Their Criticism -
  • David's Faith Was Visible - in the midst of them speaking of stoning him, he remains silent. Too many people try to make faith a verbal matter by what they say, when really we should allow our critics to see our faith visibly. As the old saying goes, actions are stronger than words.
  • David's Faith Was Vindicated - because David didn't allow himself to get caught up in personal battles or arguments David was able to lead those same critics in a pursuit against the enemy and they "recovered all" that had been taken.