You be the Judge

Matthew 7:1 – Stop judging others and you will not be judged.

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I am not sure that I ever really understood this verse. This is one of those things that I read before and felt that I had a handle on it, so all I needed to do was make sure that I don’t become judgmental. To this day I don’t think that I am judgmental…to peoples faces. There is a fine line that I have to walk here too. I have Christian friends right now who are doing things that both of us know they shouldn’t be doing. I know I shouldn’t remain silent and let them leave the calling the Lord has on their lives. The new testament is full of people calling others on their sin.

I had to walk through this with some of my best friends. (you know who you are). On friend in particular was in a relationship that we knew was wrong. We had to tell him, calling him on his junk, and after that we became enemy-like. About a year down the road he came back to visit me, relationship over, and was repentant. It really stung to lose a best friend during that time, but the Lord has strengthened our relationship, and it is even better now than it was for.

But that is not what I wanted to say in this entry. I wanted to suggest that perhaps God isn’t the one doing the counter judging in this statement. Maybe I shouldn’t judge other people because in doing that I fall into the trap of pride and the endless cycle of judging myself by comparison to others. By that standard I am very judgmental. God has been dealing with me in this area a lot lately. I am very competitive and I am discovering that there is no trophy big enough. I constantly compare myself to others and when I feel that I am better than them I move onto the next person on the scale. Disgusting isn’t it. By doing this I know that I build pride in my life and am constantly judging myself, never reaching a level of contentment. I want the Lord to help me straighten this out.

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God thank you for your word being specific to my situation today. I no longer want to set judgment standards by comparing myself to others. Help me out of this cycle. I do it all the time and it is going to take work. I need your strength