Wednesday, December 31, 2008

with what judgment you mete

Lord,
Forgive me for judging others. I think I am not doing it, and then YOU show me that I am. I do not judge others for what they look like, what size they are, what they have; yet You have shown me that I judge others when they do not behave as I think they should. You have shown me this through feelings of disappointment that I have in others.
Thank YOU, Lord, for continuing to work on me.
When I am where you want me to be, I get my promotion: HEAVEN. Sometimes I can't wait. In the name of Jesus I ask. Amen

I have noticed anger cropping up in me, and that is not something I ususally have to deal with; I believe I have used emotional eating to deal with it, and now I have to face up to my feelings. I ran across the lesson in my Freedom from Emotional Eating book that I wanted to share in hopes of being more of "the real thing." On page 101 B. Raveling tells of 4 things that might make us angry:
1. I'm expecting another person to make me happy. (I used to go through this with my husband
when we were first married, but I believe I have learned that only God can make me truly
happy)
2. I don't think I should have to suffer. (I know better and think I always have since I became
a Christian due to good, solid Bible teaching).
3. I have unrealistic expectations for others. (WHAM! The Holy Spirit punched me good!)
4. My self-esteem is dependent on the approval of others. (Not a problem that I know of, or
else the good Lord knows I can handle only so much chastening at one time)

The author says about unrealistic expectations of others:

This is a common source of anger for the person who has a highly developed sense of right
and wrong and for the perfectionist. Here are some examples of this;
getting mad at a daughter-in-law because she's a poor
housekeeper and you think everyone should have a clean house, getting angry with a co-
worker because she calls in sick when she's not really sick, or getting mad at a child or friend
who appears to have no ambition or passion when you have lots of it and think everyone
should have it!

Wow, she read my mind!! I don't have any daughter-in-laws and I am not a perfectionist about housekeeping. Someone may be judging me for that one. I do sin in judging people that might call in sick, and leave me with their work to do. And I think I know they are not sick, but just knew this day would be a very difficult one, and didn't want to face it. Well, sounds like judging to me. Guilty!

And I do get irritated with people that do not seem passionate about the Lord, and the Lord's work. Now sometimes I know people need to be more obedient, and it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out, but there are times I know I have judged wrongfully. How do I know? I have lost my peace.
Matthew 7 says not to judge for what judgement we measure out, will be given back to us. I need to get that huge beam out of my own eye before I try to help someone with a speck.
When I do I think I will have more success with the weight loss.

2 comments:

Angela said...

I was just talking to the Lord about this exact thing early this morning. Judgement and how I MUST keep my eyes on Jesus and not on others. We may try to make excuses, think it's not that a big deal, we are not REALLY judging, bla bla bla..but God is saying it is!! So, this is an area I need to watch and pray, lest I fall back into temptation to judge..
Great post..
Happy New Year to you and your's!!

Allison Mitchell said...

There was so much truth in that. I also catch myself judging others when they don't behave the way I think they should behave. Like you said, I lose my peace when I do. This is one temptation I do have to guard against almost daily.