Guard your own heart

Proverbs 4:23

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

As humans, our hearts are fragile, what happens in our surroundings, is easy to get to our hearts. People may offend, mistreat and speak ill about you; when that happens, it is mostly likely to hurt you. You might not have control over what other people do or say; however, you do have control of how you react to them. You can either allow the offense get to you or you can overlook it and simply take it to the Lord.

This is an area I had been struggling with, where I'm dealing with people who are opinionated and critical, professionally and it was really getting to me. I was humbled that the Sunday sermon was specifically about that- dealing with critical and negative people. It was a blessing. What God says is that we must allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, to be able to deal with such people and also to cleanse us from the anger and bitterness, for which such encounters might have caused in our hearts. There were 5 point to take note of that were shared:

1. With criticism, you do not have to respond or defend yourself or your point. Learn from Jesus, He didn't retaliate when when He suffered from such people. He overlooked that and entrusted it to God (1 Peter 2:23).

2. Allow the Holy Spirit to place you in the other person's shoes. Read Judges 8:1-2. This has helped me a lot, I discovered that the people that were critical, were under pressure at work due to work overload.

3. Criticism sometimes stems from personal hurt. People might be projecting their hurt on you, because they are hurt or dealing with stuff. God says, don't take it personal. Allow God to deal with that, just take it to Him in prayer.

4. Sometimes there's some truth in the criticism. Sometimes the people that criticize you, might mean well, as they want to direct and caution in certain areas. Listen to constructive criticism (Proverbs 15).

5. Guard your own heart. God says, don't let people sicken your heart. Scan the environment. Proverbs 12:18 says "The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Hence be careful of your own words and those around you. 

I pray you invite the Holy Spirit, to be your helper and not try to deal with such in your own way or strength, which could lead to a hardened heart.