LENT 2016 DAY 16 - Do Not Judge

God wants to empty your heart of judgement.

I want God to empty MY heart of judgement.  We all do it.  It's a sin that I need forgiven. Out of these judgements is an opportunity to be thankful.  A co-worker told me recently to "be supportive of others, and always assume positive intent." I wrote it on my dry erase board at work so that I could read it daily. Maybe the person is having a bad day, maybe their words just came out wrong.  Take a breadth, assume positive intent and thank God for the opportunity to serve them, help them and bring them peace.  Doing Hi will will also bring peace to self.

"Devote yourself to prayer, being watchful and thankful."  Colossians 4:2 

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you-ward." 1 Thessalonians 5 

Judgement is a big deal.  I do it so easily that I am ashamed. I don't want to be that way, it's just the devil seems to be right there nagging me to make ugly comments and to be nasty.  Uughghg, I hate that devil. Thankfully all we have to do is call on the name "Jesus" and He is there and the devil is gone. Just recently we heard the Gospels where the devil tempted Jesus...ha, what a joke right? That the devil could try and tempt Jesus. When we doubt God we can always turn back to that Gospel and remember that the devil didn't win then and He won't win now. So call out to Jesus to be present and the judgement will go away, pray for the person and pray for yourself and the peace of the Holy Spirit will fill us. We can't love someone when we pick them apart and we can't love ourselves either.

Mr. Kelly says we live in a hyper-opinionated culture. Well isn't that the truth. This is one of the many things the devil uses to keep us from the joy that is in Jesus. Sharing happiness with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost is our destiny and we can't get there if we continue to pass judgement on others and on ourselves.

POINT TO PONDER:
Whenever you are tempted to judge someone, turn your attention to seeing that person as a child of God.

Now that will take on a whole new perspective. If we also assume positive intent, our focus gets completely shifted to something different and joyful and then we move into prayerful thoughts.

VERSE TO LIVE:
"Who are you to judge your neighbor?" James 4:12

No one.  I'm a child of God just as my neighbor is and they are undeserving of my ridicule, they are deserving of my prayers. It's all about changing our focus.

QUESTION TO CONSIDER:
How will your key relationships improve if they are free from judgement?

If we start off assuming positive intent, or looking for the good, child-like qualities of the person...we remove the negative. It takes a negative step out of the equation. Passing no judgement makes for smoother transitions. It brings us peace and that brings us closer to God's presence, and is pleasing to God. The acts are easy really, we just have to try harder.

PRAYER:
Jesus, make me aware just before I am about to fall into judging someone, and give me the grace to stop myself.