How Should A Christian Respond To Critics?

It seems that people are against us, what can we do to cope and overcome adversaries? The Bible tells of one who had trouble with critics.

"This is the answers they gave us, 'We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago." Ezra 5:11.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND
The people of Israel returned from captivity to a Jerusalem and temple that was destroyed.  Ezra's enemies demanded Ezra identify himself and his followers as they proceeded to rebuild the temple.

WE ARE SERVANTS
Maybe Ezra was not willing to reveal his identity and his followers, but this bold statement is full of significance.

First, we all serve somebody.  The universe is divided into two camps- the camp of the holy, and the camp of evil.  Jesus said it too, "He who is not with me is against me." (Matthew 12:30,  Luke 11:23).  Ezra was confident in who he served, this made him bold.

Ezra had perspective, his answer was like saying, "Don't ask us, instead you should ask our master, we are servants of God."  Our critics are not criticizing us they are criticizing God.

Ezra was accountable to his commission; his answer was like saying, "We do not need to answer you, we answer to God, and we report to him not any king."  If we are doing God's will those who criticize us do not stop us.

To say they are servants of God says that they are obeying the Almighty's command. If we are obeying The Lord we can have confidence in spite of what others say.

The place of a servant is a humble place. We must be humble as we serve.

OF THE GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH
The God of Heaven and Earth outranks a mere emperor, and he outranks our enemies.

The emperor's officials may worship another deity but the God of Heaven and Earth is still over the official and over his god.

Ezra did not serve some vague force or mystical being; he had a solid understanding of who God is.  His dedication to God must have led him to seek to learn, understand, and know God.  This gave him confidence. If we do not know God this way we will not have this confidence.

AND WE ARE REBUILDING
They had a commission from God to rebuild His temple and so that is what they were going to do. No matter who opposed them they were still going to obey God.  Our commission should be our confidence.

They were focused and they were not going to let the critics distract them from the task.  We must resolve to keep our focus.

Today we are servants of the same God and we have a commission to build up His church - His dwelling in the earth.   We need the same humble resolve as Ezra

(.c)Adron Dozat 1/28/15

Should We Confess Other People's Sins? Ezra 9:5,6

People think the Old Testament prophets just went around condemning sin and proclaiming judgment, but these verses, Ezra 9:5-6, show they did something much more important, something which we all can do.

“Then at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God, and prayed, ‘O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.”  Ezra 9:5-6

OTHER'S SIN
Ezra could have addressed people's sins in many ways. He could have brought judgment on the people, cast the sinners out, or preached against their sin.

Often when we see someone doing wrong we do nothing, we nurse a critical attitude or vent with rude words at the wrongdoer.

INSTEAD EZRA
Not Ezra, he confesses their sin. Most of Ezra 9 is the prayer of confession. He uses words like "our," "we," and "us." He could have said, "this person," "them," or "they" to distance himself and the sinners, but he confesses their sins as if they were his own.

We should pray about and bring before God the sins of our family, friends, and country. The ministry of prayer is the responsibility of every believer. Parents should pray about their kids' sins. We should confess the sins of our community and country.

WHY DON'T WE?
Why don’t we confess the sins and pray for those around us? Ezra was, too ashamed and disgraced to lift up his face, but we have no sense of shame and disgrace that the saints of old had. Instead, we justify sins, argue them into a good thing, we blame our sin on others, culture, lack of education and, too much sugar. We need God to change our hearts about the very nature of sin.

CONFESSION
We need to confess our own sins and turn from them. We must ask God to show us the sin we refuse to see. Our God is holy God and justly requires it. Those who confess the sins of family and friends soon find more wickedness in themselves to confess than what they see in others.

Let's be like Ezra who was so desperate for God to forgive the sins of the people that he mourned and abased himself in sorrow before the Lord for the sins of the people. We all have issues with the injustices in our society, we may not all agree on solutions but we should all agree it needs to begin with prayer.

If you feel you need to find forgiveness for the sins in your life follow this link: click here.

(c)Adron Dozat 8/4/13