Judging

Luke 6:37 NLT 

Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.

As I remember when I was in school many years ago we would judge others by how good their grades were, what kind of car they drove, how good they where in sports, how they dressed, etc.

So when I first read this scripture I thought about looking at others and rating them in some way. Kind of like on a scale of 1 to 10. Perhaps about deciding if I wanted to get to know them.

It tells us we are not to judge others and it is easy to assume that has to do with judging their actions, their attitude, their lifestyle. But I do not believe that is what it is about at all. It is about us judging if they are worthy of becoming a believer or not.

No matter where we come from or what kind of lifestyle we lead, no one is worthy. If it were about our worthiness none would be saved. Jesus died for all of us to make us all worthy. He died for us to take on all our sins. He took on all judgement and gave us a clear path to eternity with Him.

The greater a person is in bondage the harder they fall down and praise the King. We are to look past what is in front of us, look past what we hear, and put on our Jesus glasses so we see them as He sees them. Then we tell them how much Jesus loves them.

It is not about being worthy. It is about believing in He who died for us. 

Desires

Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

We grow up learning to set goals for the future, for how we are going to earn a living and live our life. Questions we ask ourselves may include things like what do we want to do when we grow up, what college are we planning for, who are we going to marry and spend our life with, how many children are we going to have, and more.

Where do our answers come from? They come from our parents, our friends, our teachers. They come from our own dreams and desires, perhaps even birthed from a movie we watched, a book we read, or a person whose life and vocation we look up to.

In the end our desires are of this world and of our own imagination. And yet God's word tells us that we are not to lean to our own understanding, but to rely on Him through Holy Spirit to point us in the direction He has for us to take.

Often God's path for us is not the same as our own dreams or desires. As mentioned above, they can be motivated by the circumstances around us and driven by our own understating and even by the desires of those close to us.

We must lean on God and look to where He is pointing us. I am always praying for HIm to make a way for HIS desires to come through me. And for me to recognize them.

Free

Luke 4:18 NLT
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free.

That old saying "The devil made me do it" tells us that all our sinful actions are the result of satan. Well the original sin we were born into this world with may be in us us, but James 1:14 tells us that temptation comes from our own desires. It is our thinking which has been fueled by our past experiences that cause most of the trouble in our lives.

What we need is Jesus first. Then we need new experiences to overshadow those old ones. We need to let Him bring us to new places in this life, to new relationships, and to new ways to practice His presence. With our eyes set on Him, we have someone to help us at every choice point in our life.

The Lord sets us free from the bondage of our own mind. We are free to let Him take over. But we have to let ourselves be free. We have to allow Him to control our thinking instead of relying on all we know--all we have researched and all we have experienced in this earthy life. We have to let him take over and then we will truly be set free. Free to be all he created us to be.

Giving

2 Corinthians 9:7 NLT
You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. "For God loves a person who gives cheerfully."

Most believers understand that giving is to be from the heart and not from a preprogrammed motive. We may go somewhere and have a number in mind, even have it in our pocket ready to give. Holy Spirit brings another number to mind and we fight the thought. We already made that decision we think. If we give out of that early decision, we are giving out of our flesh and our logical mind. If we give in to the Holy Spirit, we are giving out of our heart. Praise God.

Then we see a homeless person and think things like: "I bet he will just buy a bottle of wine or cigarettes or worse." "Let me buy him lunch and then I will know what the money is going for." Giving at all to that homeless person is an act of kindness, but needing to know where the money goes is earthly and not of the heart. Serving others does not give us the right to how decide how others are to use what we give them. As we allow Him, Holy Spirit will show us the who and the how much. Then it is for us to obey.

All of it belongs to God in the first place. Who are we to decide what happens with His money? Even in our giving to the church we attend, we should not be looking to see how they spend our money. It is not ours to begin with. We give what Holy Spirit tells us to give and that is that. The responsibility for what it is used for is now on the church, not us. And once give we do not get to take it back. That would be asking God for a refund.

Thank you Father for allowing me to have an abundance to give to others. Thank you for allowing me and showing me how to be a blessing to them and not hoarding it for my selfish desires. In Jesus name, I pray.