JUDGING OTHERS HURTS US

WHEN THE SPIRIT CONVICTS

NOTICE WHEN your spiritual life is getting out of balance. The thing is quite painful when your spiritual life is out of whack and God reveals it to you. God gets your attention. Then He shows you where you are acting like a hypocrite. The sting of that knowledge awakens you to the inner damage it is causing to your spirit. The way you react to this knowledge shows you your heart.

It reveals what matters to you. 

Though it may take some time, once we know there is a problem, our inner person is motivated to face this error and deal with it. People and circumstances can easily get us off track enough to where we don't see the error of our ways. Something comes up and we begin to notice that we're off-kilter, which arrests our attention.

We start to pay attention.

The Holy Spirit reveals this to us, gently but firmly. Should we ignore the Spirit's prompting, further distancing from God will be the result. Darkness may come in. The joy in our hearts most likely will lessen. Frustration and discouragement builds as greater levels of bitterness and resentment increases. This deflates us as it hardens our spiritual awareness. 

We have stalled out. 

This can go on for quite some time, but it doesn't have to. You can blame God for your problems, for the spiritual distancing, lethargy, and dispiriting deadness. That's not the truth, and definitely not where the problem originated. It's not really God's problem.

This is our problem.

I recently had one of those situations. My self-righteous side passed judgment on an elderly woman who was out of line. She was using the force of her will to dominate another elderly person. She was behaving improperly, but so was I when I criticized her to someone else. The Spirit of God took me to task. That night, I knew in my heart that what I had said about her should not have been said.

I felt the pain of it in my heart. 

A deep sadness came over me. I acknowledged, apologized, and sorrowed. I sensed a great need to pray spiritual life for the woman I had criticized. She needs a relationship with Jesus. I now did what I should have done in the first place. She needs love and she needs tenderness. I had been offended by her words and actions. I felt justified in speaking about her "without mercy." That is not God's way, and it shouldn't be my way either. 

I took it up with my heavenly Father. 

After I confessed to God and asked Him to help me, the light came in. This activated compassion in me. God is love. God calls us to love the difficult people in our lives. His conviction of our wrong-mindedness about a person or thing causes a stop. We know we have to put a lid on it. We are compelled to extend grace to that person.

We follow God's leading. 

The "stop" effects a re-thinking of the thing in light of the Spirit of God. We are given the ability to make right, to turn in a new direction, and to seek His face. The darkness leaves and the light comes on. Pride leaves and a humble spirit is released. Joy returns, re-imagined and reawakened.

God is at work in us. He is bringing many sons and daughters to glory. We get to be a part of what He is doing.

Praises.

. . .

Photo by Ben White, Unsplash