“Anyone who belongs to Christ Jesus and wants to live right will have trouble from others.”
2 Timothy 3:12 (CEV)
Life is full of God-given opportunities. But with every opportunity, there will be opposition—especially in today’s increasingly divided culture. The Bible confirms it: “In fact, anyone who belongs to Christ Jesus and wants to live right will have trouble from others” (2 Timothy 3:12 CEV).
How do you respond to this kind of criticism?
Tell God how you really feel. When people put you down for doing great things, don’t get back at them. Instead, talk to God—and be honest with him. Don’t hide your hurt. Tell God exactly what you’re feeling. Prayer is a great stress reliever when you feel ridiculed and under attack.
Nehemiah’s habit was to always pray first. “Then I prayed, ‘Hear us, our God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads, and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land! Do not ignore their guilt . . . for they have provoked you to anger here in front of the builders’” (Nehemiah 4:4-5 NLT).
God doesn’t want you to tell him what you think he wants to hear. When you’re criticized, demeaned, or demoralized, he wants to hear all about it—and that includes how much it upsets you.
Confidently state your trust is in God. Whenever people oppose you for following God’s will, reaffirm what he has told you to do and commit to following him. When you act on God’s orders, you’re not trusting in yourself; you’re trusting in Almighty God! The greater the opposition in your life, the more you need to depend on God.
How did Nehemiah respond when his opponents ridiculed him? He confidently stated his trust in God: “The God of heaven will help us succeed. We, his servants, will start rebuilding this wall. But you have no share, legal right, or historic claim in Jerusalem” (Nehemiah 2:20 NLT).
Opposition can never stop God’s work in your life unless you let it. When critics put you down, don’t stoop to their level. Don’t retaliate.
Instead, like Nehemiah, be honest with God about how you really feel, and say with confidence, “The God of heaven will help me succeed.”
Globalization and the attendant concerns about poverty and inequality have become a focus of discussion in a way that few other topics, except for international terrorism or global warming, have. Most people have a strong opinion on globalization, and all of them express an interest in the well-being of the world's poor. The financial press and influential international officials confidently assert that global free markets expand the horizons for the poor, whereas activist-protesters hold the opposite belief with equal intensity. Yet the strength of people's conviction is often in inverse proportion to the amount of robust factual evidence they have.As is common in contentious public debates, different people mean different things by the same word. Some interpret "globalization" to mean the global reach of communications technology and capital movements, some think of the outsourcing by domestic companies in rich countries, and others see globalization as a byword for
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