Start Your New Life Today Part 10

The best policy is to check with your spirit and see if you have peace rather than checking with your mind to see if what G.o.d is asking is reasonable.

CHAPTER 41.

Hear and Do James 1:22 tells us, "But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth]."

As a Christian, for a long time I didn't understand that believers could know what G.o.d wanted them to do then deliberately say "no." I'm not talking about those who turn their backs on Jesus and want nothing to do with His salvation. I'm talking about those who disobey in the seemingly little things and don't seem to be troubled by doing so. I was one of them for many years and did not even realize the terrible impact of walking in my own will.

In verses 23 and 24, James goes on to say if we only listen to the Word, but don't obey it, it's like looking at our reflection in a mirror then going away and forgetting what we saw. But a doer of the Word, he says, is like one "who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience)" (v. 25). We are not blessed just because we hear the Word; we must take the next step and obey it.

Whenever Christians are faced with G.o.d's Word, and it calls them to action but they refuse to obey, their own human reasoning is often the cause. They have deceived themselves into believing something other than the truth. It's as if they think they are smarter than G.o.d. It is amazing how quickly we can talk ourselves out of doing something when deep down inside we really don't want to do it.

I've met people who seem to think G.o.d always wants them to feel good, and if something happens to make them feel bad, they don't think it could possibly be G.o.d. Or they dismiss what G.o.d is telling them simply because "it doesn't make sense."

One woman, referring to Paul's instruction to "be unceasing in prayer" (1 Thessalonians 5:17), said that verse kept coming to her every time she prayed. "What do you think that means?" I asked her.

"Oh, I think it means that day in and day out, we are to pray when we feel a need or when we want something."

Her words shocked me. "What about fellowship with the Lord?" I asked. "Isn't that a good reason? Or maybe G.o.d just wants you to spend time reading His Word and praying about what you read."

"I have too many things to do," she said. "That's fine for people who like to sit and read and pray for hours every day, but that's not the way for me."

In our brief conversation, I learned that her decisions about obeying G.o.d's Word depended on whether or not it was convenient for her lifestyle. When she read things in the Bible that didn't fit with the way she lived, she explained it to herself in such a way that she convinced herself G.o.d didn't expect her to do that.

By contrast, I remember a very dignified woman who had been a member of a traditional church most of her life. She often spoke of the noise and confusion in charismatic churches (although she had not been to one). Then she visited one of the services where I spoke and was transformed. "I couldn't believe that G.o.d would ask me to do something like clap my hands or sing loudly or even shout. But when I saw the joy on the faces of those in the congregation and heard you quote the Bible verse that says, "Oh clap your hands all you people, shout unto G.o.d with a voice of triumph" [see Psalm 47:1] what else could I do?

She said, "I had to believe G.o.d over and above what I thought or felt." She had exactly the right att.i.tude. She didn't try to reason it out or wonder why G.o.d commanded her to take that kind of action. She believed His Word and simply obeyed.

When the Bible speaks about obeying the Lord, it is not a suggestion. His Word doesn't ask, "Would you like to obey?" G.o.d commands us to take action by being a doer of His Word, and when we are obedient, He promises we will be blessed.

When the Bible speaks about obeying the Lord, it is not a suggestion.

CHAPTER 42.

Will You Be Critical or Helpful?

Have you ever met someone who had "the gift of suspicion"? They are everywhere-even in church. Recently I heard a man commenting about such a woman in his church. He said she always seemed to think the worst of everyone. If someone did something generous, she would say, "What does he expect to get out of that? He probably just wants everyone's grat.i.tude."

On one occasion, an acquaintance commented about what a friendly, happy person an usher was. "That's his public face," the woman said. "He's always smiling, but I'll bet when he gets home and away from everyone else, he doesn't smile like that." He went on to ask if someone had chided her for her critical att.i.tude; the woman only responded by saying, "I just call things as I see them. You're always trying to make things look better than they are."

The man finally realized it wasn't good for him to be around her, and he began to distance himself from her as much as possible. I believe this man made a good decision, but it was also important what he decided to do after that. Would he pray for her or begin to gossip and be critical just as she was?

I have discovered during my years in ministry that when someone with a critical spirit comes into a group or a meeting, it doesn't take much for others to become infected with it. It reminds me of the saying about one bad apple spoiling the whole bushel.

Over the years, I've met people who were very much like this lady. They're often tormented by their judgmental att.i.tudes, critical spirits, and suspicious minds. They also destroy many relationships by their words.

Matthew 7:1820 says these "bad fruits" tell us a lot about the "tree," but we still need to be careful we don't fall into Satan's trap by being critical of someone who is critical. Instead of judging we should pray and perhaps encourage the person who is critical to be more positive and believe the best. We must remember no one is perfect-each of us is a work in progress. Part of being a loving, caring Christian is to realize people may not see things in this life exactly as we do. We are not all at the same level of Christian maturity, but we can be sure G.o.d knows everything about each one of us. We must leave any judging to the only righteous judge-Jesus Christ. We may have times in life when it would be wise to distance ourselves from someone who consistently brings forth bad fruit, but we don't want to fall into the trap of being critical and judgmental ourselves. Prayer is always the best response to everything!

Instead of judging we should pray and perhaps encourage the person who is critical to be more positive and believe the best.

James writes: [My] brethren, do not speak evil about or accuse one another. He that maligns a brother or judges his brother is maligning and criticizing the Law and judging the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a practicer of the Law but a censor and judge [of it]. One only is the Lawgiver and Judge Who is able to save and to destroy [the one Who has the absolute power of life and death]. [But you] who are you that [you presume to] pa.s.s judgment on your neighbor? (James 4:1112).

Paul asks, "Who are you to pa.s.s judgment on and censure another's household servant? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he shall stand and be upheld, for the Master (the Lord) is mighty to support him and make him stand" (Romans 14:4).

CHAPTER 43.

Pa.s.sing Judgment I believe pointing a finger at someone in judgment is often the way some people cover up their own weaknesses. Their theory seems to be, "Judge others before they have a chance to judge you." I remember a girl in our neighborhood who constantly pointed to obese people and said terrible things about them. She was plump herself, and I often wondered if she criticized others in an effort to keep people from noticing her weight, or perhaps to avoid dealing with her own problem.

I grew up in a family where judgment and criticism were a part of everyday life. So I became an expert at deciding how other people should live. The devil loves to keep us busy, mentally judging the faults of others. And the shortcomings in other people are often easy to see, especially when we're looking for them.

There was a time when I enjoyed sitting in the mall, observing people as they walked by. I could usually find something wrong with every one of them. I could point out bad hairstyles, out-of-style clothes, and any number of other "problems." When we choose to be judgmental, we will find there is no end to the possibilities.

Notice I used the words "choose to be judgmental," because that's exactly what I did. Had anyone called me judgmental or critical, I would have denied it, because I wasn't aware of my negative att.i.tude. I thought I was just giving my innocent opinion. At that time, I wasn't aware my att.i.tude was totally unloving and that I just needed to mind my own business.

Another thing I didn't think about then was the uselessness of my opinions. I didn't help anyone by pointing out to my friends what I perceived to be other people's shortcomings. I now know we can choose the thoughts on which we want to focus. We can't always choose the thoughts coming into our minds, but we can decide whether to let them stay and fester or to push them aside. Jesus said, "Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you" (Matthew 7:12).

It took me a while, but I eventually learned when the devil brings those harsh, unkind, judgmental thoughts to us, we can use G.o.d's Word to chase them away.

I went through many years of misery because I judged others. It took me a long time to replace those negative thoughts with all the good things I had to think about, but the Holy Spirit kept working with me and eventually with His help I was able to overcome being critical and judgmental toward others.

During the process, G.o.d began to hold me accountable for my critical spirit, pointing me to the words of Paul: Why do you criticize and pa.s.s judgment on your brother? . . . Why do you look down upon or despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of G.o.d. . . . And so each of us shall give an account of himself [give an answer in reference to judgment] to G.o.d. Then let us no more criticize and blame and pa.s.s judgment on one another, but rather decide and endeavor never to put a stumbling block or an obstacle or a hindrance in the way of a brother (Romans 14:10, 1213).

Who are we? We're G.o.d's people. As Christians, we're part of one family-G.o.d's family. And He wants us to love and protect our family members instead of judging them. Not only is it important to stop being critical in simple obedience to G.o.d, but we should also realize that as long as we are critical we will not be happy ourselves. What we think about is what we nourish ourselves with. Another way to say it is we eat what we think and speak. Do you want to eat garbage or good, fresh, healthy food? We need to ask G.o.d to help us completely renew our minds so we learn to think with the mind of Christ and are able to do as He would.

As long as we are critical we will not be happy ourselves.

CHAPTER 44.

Loving One Another Hate is an extremely strong and harsh word. John uses that word in 1 John 2:911: "Whoever says he is in the Light and [yet] hates his brother [Christian, born-again child of G.o.d his Father] is in darkness even until now. Whoever loves his brother [believer] abides (lives) in the Light, and in It or in him there is no occasion for stumbling or cause for error or sin. But he who hates (detests, despises) his brother [in Christ] is in darkness and walking (living) in the dark; he is straying and does not perceive or know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

Any discussion among believers about hating other Christians would lead most of them to say, "I don't believe I have ever hated anyone." If we think about these words of John, however, perhaps he didn't mean hate as we think of it-feeling great hostility or animosity toward someone. Perhaps our form of hatred today is more like indifference. We don't really dislike people, but we don't care enough to help them when they have troubles and problems.

"Most of the loving I see today in the church is based on convenience," someone told me recently. He went on to say we will reach out to others as long as it's convenient or doesn't demand too much time or effort. This opens a wide door of opportunity for Satan to separate us from those who most need our love. Jesus commanded us to love each other. In John 13:3435, He said people would recognize us as His disciples by our expressions of love toward one another. Perhaps one reason they don't say that about many of today's Christians is because too often we're unwilling to go out of our way to meet the needs of others.

Love is an action verb. If you love others, you do things for them. To hate (in the biblical sense) is to do nothing or turn away. To make it worse, many people judge and criticize others and think, If you were more obedient to G.o.d maybe you would not have the trouble you have. We need to be compa.s.sionate, not critical.

We need to see that if we practice G.o.d's "love walk," we not only grow ourselves, but we enable others to grow. The devil can't do us much harm if we truly walk in loving relationship with others.

During my fourth pregnancy, I was extremely sick. When I prayed for healing, G.o.d reminded me I had criticized another woman in our church who was always tired and sick during her pregnancy. I said she was just weak-willed and needed to stop being such a complainer. Now, here I was in the same circ.u.mstances. I realized how wrong I was and repented. But it took more than repenting-it also became a time of learning for me. G.o.d forced me to realize how often I judged or criticized others because they didn't measure up to the standards I thought they ought to live by.

All of us make mistakes. All of us have weaknesses. G.o.d didn't call us to point out those weaknesses to the person (or worse, to someone else), but He did call us to care-to show Christ's love in any way we can. That is the way we can win over satanic attacks. Paul said not to grieve the Holy Spirit of G.o.d and to let all bitterness, wrath, anger, and evil-speaking be put away from you with all malice (see Ephesians 4:3032).

G.o.d used these verses to help me see that being Jesus' disciple means being kind to others, tenderhearted, understanding, and forgiving. I also realized it often means overlooking their weaknesses and shortcomings. If we truly love others as Christ loves us, it isn't difficult at all.

The main thing the world is looking for is love. Most of the time they look in all the wrong places, but if they do look to the church or a Christian they should not be disillusioned and disappointed. Jesus said they should know us by our love.

Jesus was walking along and saw a fig tree in the distance covered with leaves. He was hungry so He went to the fig tree to eat some of the fruit that was supposed to be underneath the leaves. He found no fruit and cursed the tree saying it would never bear fruit again. I believe Jesus cursed the tree because it was a phony. It had leaves and no fruit. We must make sure we are not Christians with leaves and no fruit. We might have a large Christian library, good church attendance, and a b.u.mper sticker that says, "Honk if you love Jesus." We might wear a cross necklace and even listen to Christian music, but if we are not walking in love and the other fruit of the spirit we can be a huge disappointment to someone who is truly searching for something genuine to believe in. I urge you to make walking in love a priority in your life.