When the Inner Critic Wears the Robe of a Judge

I’ve just spent the second day of the Heal the Healers conference exploring the “inner critic.”

But how does that critic truly express itself?

For many of us, that voice inside often masquerades as something divine, the “voice of God” judging or punishing us or the “devil” tempting and condemning.

Yet I believe it is neither.

Psychologists and therapists speak often about the inner critic because it lies at the root of so many of our struggles. Beneath it live our earliest fears, beliefs, and wounds.

For most of my life, I’ll admit, I have worn the robes of the judge, not always toward myself, but toward others. It was a survival strategy, a way to direct my pain outward rather than face what lay within.

One of the first quotes of the day landed hard in my body:

“You cannot make yourself grow; you can only cease to interfere.”

Have you ever had words like that, where the mind doesn’t grasp them, but the body responds?
A tear welled up, and before I could feel it, I brushed it away.

Something in me knew truth had touched a nerve.

Why do we interfere?

Judgment…..

Being “the judge” became a focal point of our discussion and my mind immediately went to how the word alone has shaped generations of misunderstanding.

Across time, culture, and translation, the word judge has come to carry the weight of fear and shame. In Western Christianity especially, we’ve come to see “God the Judge” as the punisher the one who condemns, rather than the one who protects.

But if we trace the word back to its earliest mention, the Hebrew shofet, it means something very different:

restorer, protector, defender.

God as Judge was never meant to evoke terror, but trust.
He was the comforter, the ally, the one who brings things back into right order.

Somewhere along the way, we lost that essence.

We projected our own inner critic our fear, shame, and self-condemnation onto the image of God.

And in doing so, we began to fear the very One who longs to protect and restore us.

The Misunderstood Judge

The first mention of God as Judge in Scripture wasn’t about punishment, but protection.

Our Heavenly Father discerns and observes; He does not criticise or condemn.

Through Christ, He provided the path for renewal, to carry the shame and guilt we could not, so we might be restored.
As John 3:17 reminds us:

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”

When we begin to reshape our inner terrain, to sit with discomfort, to surrender, and to seek Him inwardly for strength, the voice of the inner critic begins to quiet.

What emerges instead is the truth: the protective ally within, the divine comforter who longs to restore, not to condemn.

It’s in that space of surrender that we begin to break the cycles of fear and shame.

We remember that He is our shield, our comforter, our restorer.
And we begin to live no longer under the rule of the critic but under the grace of the One who restores all things.

When we surrender to the truth that God is not our critic but our comforter, we begin to see the world and ourselves through the lens of grace.

If you’re ready to explore your own inner landscape and learn how to release fear and shame through embodied, Christ-centered healing, I’d love to walk beside you.
Book a free discovery call to begin your journey toward restoration.

Or, continue reading: Be With: Learning to Sit, Surrender, and Heal.