Who made up the rule that the most visible sins were the worst? Certainly not God, Jesus made it real clear that God was concerned with our heart. Wait, that is INSIDE, where no one can see it!! Who am I to decide what each person should work on next? Me who is so imperfect whom God was SO patient with and continues to be today? God has a plan for each of our lives. He knows what comes next, He knows which order those pieces of our "self" need to melt away and how. Let’s leave His work in others to Him and quit second guessing Him. Let’s work on being sensitive to what He is saying to each of us, in what ways He is urging us to love others. Love Him, love others, those were His commands to us. He said HE would finish the good work He started in us, and them too so stay out of His way. Are we to judge someone else’s employee? Does it matter what you think of Farmer John’s employee if he is thrilled with them? We, each of us, are God’s favorite, the apple of His eye and if one of us is judging another, are we not setting ourselves up to be judged by others as well? Judge not lest you be judged in Matthew 7:1 also tells us that if we judge others harshly that is how we will be judged. I pretty much want to be as merciful as possible in my judgments of others because I really need that mercy when I am judged!
If you can keep all of the law then go on your merry way, you don’t need a savior, at least not until reality hits you in the face. Make no mistake, it certainly will too!
When you find yourself wanting to ridicule others or vent about them try this-earnestly ask God to show you His heart for that person. You will know He has answered when you start to feel as if you are in their shoes, feeling their suffering and overwhelmed with compassion. That is how our God feels about them, and about us when we are messing up and hurting. That is your clue to pray for them.
Everyone hurts, all you see that you find a source of irritation is someone carrying a burden that you surely do not want to carry. Perhaps that burden has overwhelmed them at that moment and they have acted or reacted in a way that irritated you.
I personally think that most people are so terrified of looking full on into the face of their own issues that they look outside at everyone else and their issues. All this time not realizing they cannot clearly see the issues of someone else through the tainted lens of their own issues. I believe our Savior said something about removing a beam from your own eye so you can see the remove the splinter in another's? Maybe He was onto something.
Cyndi,
ReplyDeleteThat is so right on. All of the fueding one's need to read this.... See the other's heart. We are not supposed to look on the outside. We see each other not in the physical, but in the spiritual....
Thank you Cyndi for sharing from your heart.
Thanks for taking the time to share your feelings as well. Yes, we are so used to, even trained to see each other and our world in the physical I think many times we forget we CAN see things spiritually. I think we need to remember our God sees us outside of this constraint of time as well and learn to be more patient waiting to see the changes in ourselves and others.
DeleteA couple of days after I wrote this I was sitting and enjoying a cold drink just inside Walmart when it suddenly dawned on me for some reason that being glad someone gets what they deserve is just another form of judgement. When someone has done wrong and they get punished I should not be excited about it.....well, unless I figure I want what it is that is coming to ME....oh no, not even a little, forgive me please, I so need that grace and mercy! I am not saying I do not want any justice in the world, only that I should feel more compassion for those that have gotten in trouble, be glad others are safe because they are not free to hurt them but have compassion for them and pray someone is put in front of them that can help them truly change their life, not just serve their sentence.
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