Don’t be so quick to Judge

I ran across an article the other day that showed several movies that people thought would be a flop but really turned out to be a fantastic movie after all. 

I thought the article was interesting because many of the movies that were listed are some of my favorite movies I like to watch. If you want to read the article your self just follow this link.

As I thought about this article it got me thinking about how sometimes we can be so quick to judge something before we even look into it our selves. We seem to be so quick to believe the worst in people, before hearing them out first. So quick to jump to conclusions before ever getting to the truth or getting all of the facts.

Look at what the Bible says about this: 

“He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”-(Prov 18:13)

I don't know about you but I can safely say that I have experienced that passage more times than I would like to admit. So many times in my life I had mad a rash judgment about something, and said things without knowing all the facts. Then days or weeks later I realize (after having all the facts) that it was not how I thought it was at all. Then I wind up eating crow for the next several days and apologizing for my actions or words.  That is why the writer in Proverbs says "it is folly and shame unto him".

   So how can we avoid this folly, and how can we avoid being ashamed for our poor misinformed actions and words. Well speaking as one who has fallen into this folly my self let me give you a few thoughts on how we might avoid this problem in the future. 

1.         Be Patient

    I know that the word patience  should be labeled as a curse word, and I hate it as much as anyone. However I think a lot of us jump to conclusions and arrive at decisions because we rather not wait for all the facts to come out. You see sometimes, many times it takes a little bit of time to get all the facts to come out on any given matter.  It is far easier to take in what we know now and then form our own judgments. However If we will take the time to wait and listen to all the facts, hear from everyone, it may help us to see the situation a little more clearly and arrive at a more well informed conclusion. 

2.        Believe the Best

    You know what they say "bad news travel's faster than good news".  Lets be honest we kind of enjoy hearing the bad news more than the good news. This is why when a celebrity is going through a divorce, or going through a drug rehab program that gets front page news. However a celebrity who gives money to some sort of charity it does not have the same kind of appeal, so you end up finding that story on page 15 instead of on the front page. 

    I think this is one of the reasons why we jump to conclusions. Instead of reserving our judgment, we often want to believe the worst. Instead of believing the best in someone we think they don't have the best of intentions. Instead of believing that the situation is not as bleak as it may appear, we become like chicken little yelling that the sky is falling. 

3.        Don't be Driven by Emotion

    Emotions can cause us to see things that are not there. It can causes to respond to ordinary things in extraordinary ways. For example, think about those Haunted houses that come popping up every October.  We know going in there that everything in that Haunted house is all there to make us scared. If one would just simply turn on the lights you would see the hallways, the paint, the individual's dressed up as a crazy doctor, zombie, vampire or a warewolf. Just turn off the lights, turn on the strobe lights, throw in some screams and some scary music and bam your emotions take over. 

    Our emotions can fuel our perception's of individual's and situations. They can cause us to overlook or ignore facts. When we let our Emotions to run we can then make rash judgments that are not quite fare, or even worse out right false. 

So maybe just maybe when we hear some bad news, or we happen to hear about what someone said or did. Instead of jumping to conclusions and making our own snap judgement. Instead lets be patient and wait for all the facts to come out, lets try to believe the best in people and try not to assume the worst, and lets try not to allow our emotions to overshadow our sensibilities. So maybe just maybe we can avoid the folly of making a rash judgement in the future.  

  

Staying Thirsty For God

     This past Sunday I preaching out of  (Isaiah 44:1-5) and I talked about how God can restore us after we have sinned against him. (You can listen to the sermon here ) In that passage we read this "For I will pour water upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground, I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and blessing upon thine offspring".

  

    Now one of the things I touched upon in that sermon was the idea that no matter what our relationship with God looks like right now, we should never be satisfied. Another words we should always have a desire for a closer walk with God no matter how close to God we are right now. If our walk is not what it should be, then by all means we need to desire a closer walk with God. However if our walk with God has never been better, than we do not need to stay satisfied with that, but rather desire a closer walk with God than we currently have. 

    Now here is why I say that. Can you ever get to a point in your relationship with God that you can say "I can't grow any more" or that "There is nothing more I can learn about God"? The answer is a resounding NO! In fact as I think about heaven, and what it will be like I think that one of the awesome things about heaven will be each and every day throughout eternity we will learn more and more about God, and we will draw closer and closer to Him. I don't know about you but for me that is an amazing thought. 

    But here is the question I have since asked myself. How do we do it? How can we stay thirsty for God? How can we stay out of the trap of being satisfied with our walk with God?  

    I find answering these questions are harder for those of us who can truthfully say that "Today my walk with God is the best it has ever been" Because you see, this is when the trap of being satisfied really gets us. When our walk with God is the "best it has ever been" this is the time we tend to step back, and we begin to lose our hunger and thirst for God. In short we become Satisfied.  When that happens it is not too long there after that our relationship with God starts to take a back seat. Another words if your are not swimming up stream, you will just be carried away by it. 

    This all being said, let me give you just two things that I believe can help us stay thirsty for a closer walk with God. 

    1.       Understand that there is no other Substitute for God

When I was a medic in the army, one of my duties was to make sure that everyone was drinking water. When you have a 25-50 pound ruck sack, and running up and down the woods, digging trenches in the hot sun you can work up a sweat. It don't take much of that to get dehydrated. 

I remember one day when I was checking in on the soldiers in my platoon that one of the soldiers would would tell me "Doc I am drinking plenty".  Well as the day went on he was one of the few soldiers that I never saw fill up his canteen, and he did not ask me to go get some water either. So the next time I saw him, I asked him "Are you staying hydrated?" to which he replied "Doc I am drinking plenty". Then I asked him something more specific, I asked "So what do you have in your canteen?" He gave me his canteen and I opened it up to find that we filled his canteen up with Pepsi. While Pepsi might wet your whistle, and it may make you feel you are hydrated it in fact does the exact opposite for you. 

When it comes to our relationship's with God there really is no other substitute to quench your thirst for a closer fellowship with Him. 

2.        Don't just sit there DO SOMETHING! 

One of the things that causes us to really want to drink water is when we are exerting energy. No matter if we are mowing the lawn in a hot summer day, or we are working in a factory, or just in a gym and working out, you will begin to get thirsty.  As we perspire our body begins to send signals to our brain that tells us that we need to get something to drink.  The very act of work causes us to want to drink more water. 

When we serve God, when we put God's words in action, it begins to cause us to thirst for God more. We begin to see all that God can do in our lives when we are obedient to His word. We begin to realize that we can not do what God has called us to do without God's help. 

One of the problems we have as believers is we take in a sermon, read a devotional, study a passage and that is where it stops. We never do anything with the teachings we learn, we rarely live out the sermons we listen to. God wants us not to just sit and listen, but to get up and do something. Forgive someone you have been holding a grudge against. Go and help someone in need. Start a gospel conversation with someone. I could go on and on, but you get my point, we need to serve God, and by serving God we begin to get thirsty for a closer walk with God. 

      I think one of the things the church is in need of now, is for men and women to desire a closer walk with God than they ever have before.  A desire so deep, so powerful it can only be described as a thirst. I don't know where you are in your walk with God today, but I hope that whatever your walk with God looks like. I hope that you will thirst for more of God and you stay thirsty!