Have you ever picked up a piece of fruit that is so beautiful but when you opened it up it was rotting on the inside? Or maybe you get a piece of fruit that looks so disgusting you think it must be starting to rot but when you open it up it turns out to be one of the most delicious pieces of fruit you ever had?
I remember when I went on a mission trip to Mexico. We were in the process of building a church. Every day the ones in charge would bring a huge gunny sack full of oranges. The oranges were so ugly that it was in question whether or not you would want to eat them. I did try one and I was so glad I did. They were the most delicious oranges that I ever have eaten.
There was also bananas. If there is one thing that I have never liked, it is an over ripe banana. The bananas, where we were in Mexico, looked over ripe, so I would not eat them. I was told later that they were the most delicious bananas but I missed out because I could not get passed the skin.
The question is what kind of fruit are we? Do we look good on the outside but we are full of rot on the inside? Has sin is so polluted our lives that it has taken over our lives but we try to put on a Christian face?
Then there is the other side of things. How do we look at other people? If we like how they look on the outside we think they must be wonderful. But if they don’t look the way we think they should we just decide they are rotten on the inside. We cannot judge people by how they look on the outside.
We have such a tendency to look and to judge others. Some how that makes us feel good about who we are. And the reality is we may have some real rot on the inside. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:” Proverbs 23:7a
We may look at someone and judge about the way they are eating but we are cannibalizing people. We may judge someone who murders, even little babies, but we hate someone. In God’s eyes it is all the same. Every person on this earth is His child and He knows their needs, he knows their, circumstances.
I have found that as I start to look at someone, to judge him or her, I have to stop and look into my own heart. I would say a lot of the time when we go to judge someone else we can find something in our own lives that is not any better or a lot of times, worse. The devil wants us to focus on others so that our focus is not on examining our own lives. He wants to make us feel uncomfortable with examining ourselves.
I want to make a disclaimer here. There, obviously needs to be some watch care or judging if you will, for keeping our children and us safe and that is not what I am referring to here. But even in those circumstances we need to be careful not to bring a hate toward the person but a forgiving love. And stay away from what can harm.
The question is, what can we do to not judge others by their book cover, or just not judge a person at all? It takes discipline because it is not an easy thing. But God is able to accomplish it in us if we are willing.
- When you want to judge, look at yourself. I have found this very revealing at times. When I start to look into my own life I find a lot of times that what I want to judge in someone else, I can find underlining issues in my own life. Maybe I am thinking they need to be obeying God in this area but I am disobeying God in another area. What’s the difference?
- When you look at others look through the eyes of Jesus dying on the cross for them. This changes the perspective. We are nothing special to God. He loves us all the same. Even though we don’t say it, when we look at people and have the disgusting attitude we are having it toward God. We are all His children. How do we feel when someone judges our child? We tend to want to defend. And God has one up on us because He can see everything and know the ends and outs of every life, so He can judge rightly.
- We need to pray for the ones we want to judge. God is working with them just as He is working with us. We are all on a journey and we are all at different stages. We need to leave room for God to work instead of taking it into our own hands. Somehow we think we can do it better than God, at least that is the way we act.
- Only God can give us the love we need to have for others. We definitely cannot do this on our own. As we spend time in God’s Word, in prayer, and in memorizing Scripture, we will become more like Him. When we struggle He is there to give us the power to overcome, all we have to do is ask.
Dear Father,
We all struggle so much with wanting to judge others. Give us more compassion. Help us to love as You love. Open our eyes to ourselves and show us what we need to change in our own lives. Thank you for Your patience with our stubborn hearts.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
Keep close to Jesus; He is the only one that can change us from the inside out.
Love you all.
Have you struggled with judging others? What has helped you in overcoming that habit?
Maybe you have been judged, what pain has that brought to your life? And what did you do to get healing?
Share so that others can be blessed.