Re:Verse reading–Matthew 7:1-27 (day two) “Do not judge lest you be judged” (vs 1) The opposite of judgment is not moral neutrality, it is intercession and involvement. Jesus is not counseling us to have no discernment re: ethics or doctrine. He is commanding that we do so with compassionate hearts. “Brothers, if someone is caught in sin, the spiritual ones among you should restore him. Do it with a lowly and non-presumptuous spirit, considering yourselves, lest you too be put to the test. Feel the weight that others are felling and thus fulfull the teachings of Christ”. (Galatians 6:1–translated by Dallas Willard) It is the consistent call of God. “Behold, I looked for a man who would stand in the gap before me for the land. . .but I found no one.” (Ezekiel 22:30) Friend, will you pray for your enemies and friends today? For their recovery? Will you be involved as God gives you opportunity and guidance?
Yes, I will…. sort of…. I feel Christians have NO BUSINESS having enemies and so I will pray for those around me and let the love of God for them flow through me. It is not personal, although I understand well the temptation/pressure from the enemy to make it so.
The Spirit brought to my remembrance last night someone who I am now committing to pray for even more so. This person was a temp SS teacher in my former church. His theology was spot-on and yet every Sunday my husband would laugh at me because I would declare him to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. There was just something there I could not put my finger on. Months later he left his wife and the last time I saw him was late at night at a grocery store buying beer and household essentials with a female who was not his wife. That is his sin… now for mine….If I knew then what I know now I would have taken a day to fast and seek the Lord about the “wrongness” that I sensed in him. Although I do not carry active guilt, I can clearly see that if I would have, possibly he would not have given “flesh/action” to the evil he was tempted with and his marriage could have been saved by the Power of the Lord. I am seeing more and more that our job as intercessors is (by standing in the gap) to get the enemy off of our brothers/sisters long enough for them to come to their senses and repent. Lord, may you make us more like You. I hope everyone who reads this will join me in prayer for our brothers/sisters (including ourselves) that need a deeper revelation of God and His plan for us… that we would cast off all that hinders and move forward into what He has for us. May a season of restoration of relationships come to the house of FBCSA.
As I pondered this on my run/walk this morning, the Lord gave me a helpful picture of a King’s palace (the world) and in it are many, many jars. All of them meant to be filled and placed into service unto the King. Now imagine someone going through the palace and looking at an unattractive (to his eye… certainly not to God’s) or dirty jar and condemning it as being a bad jar… maybe even harming it or destroying it completely…seeing no value in it. Later, he comes to a lovely, ornate, wonderful to look at jar and decides he will keep that one for himself… the fact that it is not filled and thus not in service to the King is irrelevant to him. In both cases, what the King wants is for the jars of clay to be filled and in service to Him. He made them and knows exactly what they are for (His pleasure/service, not ours). How would life change if Christians saw everyone in this way?…. and stopped condemning one another and started helping one another become filled and put into useful service for the Lord?…not because they “deserve it”… but because THE KING deserves it!… just a thought.
Father… you do indeed deserve this and more. You made a way of restoration that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Eph 3:19). May you teach us to let You do Your work in us that we and others might be filled to this fullness and that your Kingdom may come on earth as it is in Heaven. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thanks for these thoughts. I’m in a hotel room in England, waintig for a wedding tomorrow and it’s probably more nerve-wracking for me than the bride or groom! I am a Christian + have had SA for 15yrs and with God’s help am working with it + getting through it. Just some days (like tomorrow) are a bit scary. Thanks for the inspiration. I’ll think if that when I’m talking to strangers tomorrow. God bless.