Are You Missing Out...?
A roommate of mine from project this summer recently emailed me and at the end of his email he signed out with this statement..."Judge not...lest you don't experience God's grace towards you." And so this got me thinking...how does judging myself keep me from experiencing God's grace? I don't think I've got it figured out but this is where I'm at so far....
God's grace, among other things, enables me to accept my "bad". In all of us there is good and bad....good and bad characteristics....good and bad habits....good and bad responses to situations...good and bad. And when I judge myself I'm inevitably judging my bad because I have an "ideal" me that I think I "should" be. These standards or "shoulds" come in many shapes and sizes. For example, "I shouldn't get angry when someone cuts me off", "I should read more books","I should take more faith steps", "I should read my Bible and pray more."...You get the picture (and it's not that we don't want to do those things...the problem comes when we feel like we "should" do them...more on that later maybe). So what happens when we fail in these areas that we think we should do better in? If you are like me you judge yourself..."next time I'm going to do better...I can do this." When in reality "I" probably can't do better next time....and when I realize and accept that reality two things happen.
One, I realize "I" can't do better and so because I do really want to be more Christ-like I admit that I desperately need the power of the Holy Spirit in my life...I need Him to empower me.
The second thing that happens is an acceptance of God's grace in that area of my life. This also frees me up to hear truth in that area of my life because if I'm judging a certain area of my life, when someone speaks truth into that area, even if they are speaking it in love, I will not hear the love and instead I will just experience judgment...which leads to separation. BUT, if I'm accepting God's grace towards me in that bad/real area I can accept truth and grow because I know that I'm already accepted by God.
Any Thoughts?
A roommate of mine from project this summer recently emailed me and at the end of his email he signed out with this statement..."Judge not...lest you don't experience God's grace towards you." And so this got me thinking...how does judging myself keep me from experiencing God's grace? I don't think I've got it figured out but this is where I'm at so far....
God's grace, among other things, enables me to accept my "bad". In all of us there is good and bad....good and bad characteristics....good and bad habits....good and bad responses to situations...good and bad. And when I judge myself I'm inevitably judging my bad because I have an "ideal" me that I think I "should" be. These standards or "shoulds" come in many shapes and sizes. For example, "I shouldn't get angry when someone cuts me off", "I should read more books","I should take more faith steps", "I should read my Bible and pray more."...You get the picture (and it's not that we don't want to do those things...the problem comes when we feel like we "should" do them...more on that later maybe). So what happens when we fail in these areas that we think we should do better in? If you are like me you judge yourself..."next time I'm going to do better...I can do this." When in reality "I" probably can't do better next time....and when I realize and accept that reality two things happen.
One, I realize "I" can't do better and so because I do really want to be more Christ-like I admit that I desperately need the power of the Holy Spirit in my life...I need Him to empower me.
The second thing that happens is an acceptance of God's grace in that area of my life. This also frees me up to hear truth in that area of my life because if I'm judging a certain area of my life, when someone speaks truth into that area, even if they are speaking it in love, I will not hear the love and instead I will just experience judgment...which leads to separation. BUT, if I'm accepting God's grace towards me in that bad/real area I can accept truth and grow because I know that I'm already accepted by God.
Any Thoughts?
posted by mizzou new staff at 11:17 AM
2 Comments:
Hmm...I'm going to think about this. And just so you know, you're at the top of my "to call" list.
All right, where are you, brother? I'm sure you've got a new post or two in you.
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