Do you ever struggle with being judgmental? I know I have many times, and I think one of
the big things we can get a very judgmental attitude about is when we see a
believer struggling, maybe with deprecation or a disease or some kind of
sickness or just hardships, thinking that they had sinned and if they had more
faith they wouldn’t be in these situations in the first place. Usually we want to pray for them to be healed
or we want to pray that their situations will be better right away, and if it
doesn’t happen, it is easy to accuse them of having a lack of faith like I said,
or having sin in there lives which may not be the case at all.
Many sicknesses and difficulties are brought on by ourselves,
by the choices we make so all we are doing is reaping the consequences of our
bad choices. So if we are not healed
right away or our situations don’t get better overnight, so to speak, there may
be good reasons why; maybe the Lord is trying to show us something through
these various things to teach us something. There are times when the Lord might use these
things to humble us, if we have been too prideful, or unloving and unkind, or
maybe we are holding grudges against people or whatever sins we are holding
onto and won’t let go of.
There is another reason why believers may be facing
difficulties and even sicknesses and it is not because of sin or a lack of
faith it maybe because the good Lord it testing them. Think of Job, he was a faithful man that honored
God and did what he was commanded to do. He sacrificed animals for his and his family’s
sins like he was commanded to do in his day, and was very careful to keep God’s
Word and walk fearfully and humbly before his God.
Now read what happened one day when Satan came before the
Lord in the book of Job 1:8-12, read what happened next: “And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one
that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said,
Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about
his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work
of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine
hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And
the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon
himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the
Lord.”
Now read Job 2:1-10, “Again
there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the
Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And
the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord,
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in
it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that
there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that
feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity,
although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. And Satan
answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he
give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his
flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life. So went Satan forth from the
presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot
unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat
down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine
integrity? curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of
the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and
shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”
As time goes on in this story, Job has three friends that come
on the scene and mostly what they do is accuse him of sinning, saying that he
must have sinned to be in his situation but that was not the case at all. These three friends were miserable comforters
while Job was going through agony because of his situation and the circumstance
he was in. Think of this, Job lost
everything he had except for his house and his wife, who wasn’t helping him
either. We shouldn’t be too hard on her
because she had lost everything also.
In case you haven’t
read or heard the story, this is all they had, read Job 1:1-3, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose
name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God,
and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and
five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great
household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.”
In all this, Job never cursed God. In the end God blessed Job with twice as much
as he had, read Job 42:10-17, “And the
Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord
gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there unto him all his
brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance
before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and
comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man
also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. So the Lord
blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen
thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a
thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called
the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name
of the third, Kerenhappuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as
the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their
brethren. After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons,
and his sons' sons, even four generations. So Job died, being old and full of
days.”
This should be a lesson for all of us; good things and bad things
happen to all of us at times whether we are believers or not and it may have
nothing to do with faith or sin, we all live in a fallen world. I feel that the Lord is teaching me if I have
sinned then I need to repent and confess whatever it may be, then if I have
been obedient to the Lord and His calling and I still suffer in whatever way, I
need to start thanking God for the situation I find myself in, for I may be
going through a test and, if I am, I want to be like Job and accept it and not
curse God or even be angry at Him for it, He knows what He is doing and I can
be confident of that fact. And when things
seem to be dark and dreary and I have no answers, there is no sense in me
cursing the darkness; what I need to do is trust the Lord and let my light
shine in the darkness and thank and praise the Lord any way.
So if you have a tendency to judge people, be careful to
leave the judging to the Lord who knows all things. Read what it says in Luke 6:37-42, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged:
condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give,
and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken
together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same
measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. And he spake a
parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into
the ditch? The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect
shall be as his master. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy
brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how
canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in
thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt
thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.”
This is a good lesson for all of us and it is something we
should all think about. May the good Lord
bless you and yours and may you have a super day!! And don’t forget to thank and praise the
Lord!!
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