Judgment

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you"

 (Matthew 7:1&2)

Something that I've been feeling really convicted of lately is that I'm a much more judgmental person than I realized. That's not something I like to admit. Of all the bad things I could be, judgmental is the one I would least like to be...but God is showing me that there are subtle ways in which I have been judgmental and not realized it. 

I don't really have such a problem with judging people who have different beliefs than mine. It's pretty easy for me to realize that people who don't believe the same things I do and worship the same God I do are obviously going to have a different set of standards to base their lives on. It's the people who are of the same faith as me that I am more critical of.

See, sometimes I think that I know what the right decision is in particular situations, and I fool myself into thinking I know what God would want. If a fellow believer makes a decision that's different than what I would have chosen, I sometimes like to think to myself  "I may not be perfect, but I would never do that..." This attitude is just so, so wrong. I guess I just never quite realized what I was doing until now. When I was reading Matthew today, it just really hit me when Jesus said "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." I felt as if he were saying it directly to me. 

The thing is, I don't know everything. Shocking, right? Who am I to say that I'm right and other people are wrong? That's just pure pride.  But it doesn't even matter if I'm right or not. That's not the point. 

God has lavished so much love and grace upon me...who am I to deny others the same love and grace? God blesses me so that I can in turn be a blessing to others. It is not my job to judge. It's my job to love my brothers and sisters and build them up, even if they fall sometimes. 

God has given me so much love, it's time I started pouring more of that out on others. <3