Your Shield

Spreading The Truth One Byte At A Time

By Ron Bender© 2008, 2013

When someone criticizes you are you defensive? Or do you get angry? Many people I talk to have a hard time responding to criticism because they take it inside and feel bad or they protect themselves by shutting down emotionally, which leaves them isolated and depressed.

I can relate. For much of my life I felt inadequate whenever someone criticized me. So I put pressure on myself to succeed and to try to get people to think well of me. That created a lot of anxiety!

I have learned another way. It’s expressed in a favorite little prayer of mine from Psalm 3:3: “You are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.”

Let’s use David’s prayer in the way that Jesus taught us in the Lord’s prayer: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). In other words, we pray, “O Lord, lead us by the hand so we don’t fall down in trials and succumb to evil.” This is a way to “watch and pray” with Jesus (Matthew 26:41).

Anticipate the next time you will be judged, gossiped about, unduly pressured, or mistreated in someway. Picture the person who you’re vulnerable to be hurt by… Talk to God about what tends to happen and how you feel…

Then incorporate Psalm 3:3 into your prayer: “You are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.”

As you pray imagine this being actually true for you in your situation of distress: see the Spirit of Christ all around you like the full body, semi-circle shields that the Roman soldiers of old used to protect them from the flaming arrows of the enemy. In your mind see that the arrows don’t pierce your heart, they hit the shield.

Yes, you may still be criticized or pressured and your circumstances may be difficult. But you are learning not to depend on or react to the visible situation – you are focusing on the spiritual reality that you are in God’s Kingdom and Christ is with you protecting your heart and caring for you – the real you! So you are not receiving the wound or the stress into your being. Instead you are appreciating that God bestows his glory on you! You are relying upon and receiving God’s blessing.

You can lift your head high! And because you’re appreciating the grace and glory that God gives you can share it with others – even those who have offended you.

 

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Thank you!

Ron

Ronald Bender- President/CEO Bender Consulting.~http://www.benderbytes.net/bender_consult