Who Are You Judging?

“So why do you judge your brother or sister in Christ? Or why do you think that you are better than they are? We will all stand before God, and he will judge us all.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭14:10‬ ‭ERV‬‬

“So each of us will have to explain to God about the things we do.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭14:12‬ ‭ERV

I think if we let the weight of these verses hit us, it will change us forever.

Take marriage, for example. When our spouse disappoints us or makes us unhappy, we focus on their sin problem. We, in essence, judge them as it describes in verse 10. I think that we act as if God will not notice that we did that. However, it says in verse 12, we will have to explain "the things that we did."

I have to remind myself that I will stand before the Lord one day and explain how I treated Mark. Wow! Keep that thought in your mind when you judge your spouse. It will be silly to say to God, "Mark did not remember to take out the trash on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That made me mad." Keep in mind that I am using a silly example. Mark always takes out the trash, as long as I set it right by the coffee pot:):):).

Fill in the blank. God, my spouse does this____. Name it...whatever the thing is that gives you the right to judge him. Just name it. Practice saying this excuse before the Lord one day. Will this excuse hold up? Will this make it okay to judge him, even though Romans 14:10 says not to judge but to love?

I firmly believe that when I stand before the creator of the universe one day, He will want to know how did I love Mark. He put Mark in my life to love and cherish and serve. God will ask me, "How did you do?" Jesus loved Mark enough to die for Mark. I do want to wow God's heart when I loved Mark when he didn't take out the trash or serve me. I would love to hear God say, "I noticed that time when Mark did so and so and you forgave him and loved him anyway."

This post may not apply to your marriage. Who in your life are you judging?

Myth of Perfection

“Perfectionism is a self destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.” Brene’ Brown

I have been reading some books by Brene’ Brown and this quote has stopped me in my tracks. How many times do we try to be perfect so that we “can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.” In our Christian life, are we needlessly trying to be perfect in order to please God’s favor? Do we feel like we could earn God’s love? Do we continue to bury the feelings of shame of the sins in our past so that God will view us as perfect?

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭103:13-14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

What a promise in this verse! God knows how we are formed. We are made of stinking dust! He knows our frailties too well. We can’t hide our imperfections from our creator. No matter how hard we try, we can’t hide the past mistakes that we are ashamed of. But that is the point and the victory in this verse,

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8:1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

None! Absolutely no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are wasting our time and effort to run from our imperfections. It is impossible to run from them because there is a delete button.

“And he has taken our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭103:12‬ ‭ERV‬‬

We can’t comprehend how far the east is from the west. No way to measure this. God is trying to tell us that he does not see us with our past sin sitting in front of our face. He sees Jesus standing in front of our face, as the covering for past and present and future sins. He literally covers our imperfections! Highest praise to Jesus!

“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:2‬ ‭NIV‬‬