Judge not, that you be not judged. Pray for the weak, confused, lonely, sick, impoverished and fearful. It is by grace that we stand. Form a habit of praying for people and lifting them up with your words and prayers. Constant criticism, mockery and belittling penetrates and shatters the soul. Let love rule.
Pray for Others.
When you form the habit of praying for others and putting yourself in their shoes, you will find it easier to love, and lift up instead of judging.
Negativity Destroys the Soul
A lot of people are suffering psychologically because the people that were closest to them took delight in harming them with words and verbally assaulting and abusing them. There is always a positive way the uplift someone. The Bible says that our words should always impart grace to the hearers. Words can offer emotional support and words have the power to heal our minds and emotions. Words can be soothing to the soul. Words can dilute fear, hopelessness and anxiety.
It Is By Grace We That Stand
Self knowledge and self awareness is very important because that is how we destroy and get rid of pride. Once you realize that it is by grace that you stand, and that without CHRIST you can do nothing, and that man’s power is of no use at all, then, you will stop judging and criticizing others.
Every good and perfect present comes from God. It is wisdom for us not to judge others and mock them. It is only Christ that produces good fruits in us, so be thankful and pray for those who might fall short in areas that you are good in because we all have faults.
There are some faults that you also have, and you will not want to be made a mockery of because you are not perfect – no one is perfect. We must stop childishness and embrace maturity and wisdom. LOVE can only rule through wisdom and maturity in the word of God.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. (1 John 3:1 NKJV)
God gave us amazing love by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. He also adopted us as His children – what a glorious love. Being His children, He loves us beyond our imaginations. It might be hard sometimes to comprehend this great love especially during hardship and tragedy. However, the word of God cannot be broken – God loves us and He is full of love and compassion.
We must always thank and praise God for this great love because it the reason why we live and breathe. Nothing can compare with God’s love and mercy. By love we were created and by love we live and are sustained. What a mighty God we worship!
May God’s great love come mightily upon us in Jesus name.
Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. (1 Peter 3:7 ESV)
Lack of compassion and understanding can hinder our prayers. This Scripture is talking about men showing honor to their wives as weaker vessels by being understanding towards their wives. There is a principle at work here and that is the principle of love, kindness and understanding. If this can hinder a husband’s prayer, it means that it can also hinder the prayers of other people who do not treat others with love, compassion and understanding.
This means that we should remember that our prayers can be hindered and if that is the case, we must live in such a way that we do not defeat our own prayers. Kindness and love will help our prayers while wickedness and evil will defeat our prayers.
May this wisdom dwell in us and keep us from living careless lives that attract judgement on us and hinder our prayers.
He will bring justice to the poor of the people;He will save the children of the needy, and will break in pieces the oppressor. (Psalm 72:4 NKJV)
What a wonderful promise. Our God is an awesome God, He is not partial or complacent when it comes to protecting the weak and needy. When He looks at them, His heart gets filled with love and compassion.
He knows what it feels like to be poor because He is the creator. He can feel all things. Jesus said that whatever we do to the least of the brethren, we do to Him. That means, He feels everybody’s pain and injustice.
If you have ever been oppressed and needy you will definitely understand. I understand because I know what it feels like to be oppressed. It is not a very good feeling, in fact it is one of the worst feelings on earth.
An oppressed person cries many silent cries and his spirit is in a state of perpetual weeping and mourning. The Lord Himself counts those silent and hidden tears because He sees all. He is the God that sees all.
I remember sometime ago when a South London man that I became friends with out of pity dealt mercilessly with me. He betrayed my trust and friendship with great recklessness and irresponsibility.
The first time I met him, he presented himself as a victim, however, when he gained my trust and pity he became the hunter – the victim became the hunter and the helper became the prey. After this man dealt with me, I was in great pain, sorrow and turmoil.
The Lord had previously warned me about this man but I did not listen. I convinced myself it was the devil that spoke – how silly.
When the man became the hunter after his prey – me, the Lord appeared in a white cloud one afternoon and spoke to me saying, “he thinks he will get away with his actions but He won’t.” At this point, I had not yet understood the full extent of the evil intention that this man had for me. Then after a while, this man‘s true intention and the harm he intended became open. He hurt me and showed himself fully as someone that had the intention to harm me further. At this discovery, I was in pain and shock.
The Lord spoke to me again and said, ”you will face your judgement.” I still did not understand the reality of what He said until my stomach started burning like fire, and a great sorrow gripped me.
The Lord then appeared to me again, sitting on a chair. I threw myself on the floor at His feet rolling and crying and I could sense He was not happy with me. He scolded me and said I behaved badly. At that point I could not argue with Him or lie.
I was just making excuses but I felt that He was so right and my excuses were useless and lame. When the Lord speaks and you are wrong, you accept your judgement. I had taken wrong steps and I did not pay attention when He warned me about this man.
After some days, the Lord spoke to me and said, ‘Your pain is my pain.’ Remember that I had brought this upon myself through my disobedience. However, the pain was just too much. It was unbearable and the Lord became my comforter.
I always knew His love but that was a deeper revelation of His love that I had not known or imagined. It felt very personal and real. He felt my pain very deeply and I could feel His love through His words and voice. For those who doubt, God definitely has deep emotions and feelings.
After the great blow and pain the man gave me, I saw myself in a trance saying, “ Holy Spirit take me home, I want to see God the father and I want to see Jesus.’ Wow, I did not know that my spirit was traumatised.
Physically, I felt I was okay and the pain would just go away, but the Lord showed me the condition of my spirit. It was the first time that I realised that the Lord who had been having this wonderful, amazing relationship with me was the Holy Spirit.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17
He had told me long before that vision that I would have a good relationship with the Holy Spirit but it was not deeply impressed on my mind. I always called Him Jesus and I never realised that it was the Holy Spirit until I said that.
May be I just never differentiated the two. Of course, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ so in that sense He is Jesus but to be more specific He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the manifest power and glory of God and He is at the right side of God.
The manifest presence of God is constant in heaven. The Holy Spirit is the one who manifests the presence of God on earth. The manifest presence of God is not constantly present on earth. However, we can experience the manifest presence of God by the Holy Spirit.
We can only experience Jesus who is life and glory by the spirit of Jesus – the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of the father and son and He makes heaven real on earth.
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. John 14:23
The Lord said nothing when I told Him I wanted to go home. I was even surprised that I was asking the Lord to leave this earth – what about my ministry? I was simply shocked at my request but He rightly ignored my request.
Some days later, in a trance He appeared to me in a white cloud. Then next thing I knew, I was lying on the cloud and I expected the cloud to be soft but it was hard! I just lay on the cloud like a baby for some time and when I came out of the trance I felt good, comforted and consoled.
After that vision, my spirit was refreshed and healed and I was able to forget the pain. He saw and heard my silent cry, tears, sorrows and pain even though I had disobeyed His instruction. I was judged but He comforted me in judgement.
When Hagar cried her own silent tears, He appeared as the God Who Sees. He felt her pain even though it was Hagar who provoked her mistress. He still felt pity for her but asked her to go back and behave herself by submitting to Sarai. This is an aspect of God that I like so much – His compassionate nature.
When we hurt the poor, we hurt Him. When we oppress and cheat the needy, He feels it like it is His own pain and injustice. He is saying today and every other day, through this Scripture that He will bring justice to the poor and will save the needy. Glory to God.
There is hope for the neglected, abused and poor because our God sees and hears their cries for justice and mercy. Justice will rise up and meet them. God will break in pieces the oppressors of mankind and save the oppressed. Most especially, when we get to Heaven, He will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, (Colossians 3:12 ESV)
Putting on these fruits is like putting on exquisite spiritual garments.
They are the garments that attract the presence of God because they represent the attributes and nature of God. Like attracts like.
A careful look at Colossians 3:12 clearly shows that it is an instruction or command.
Paul is not begging us but telling us what we should do as Christians with focus and direction who have not forgotten their first love – Christ.
It is love for the beloved that constantly makes us draw closer to Him. Jesus had a compassionate heart and deep empathy for the suffering and afflicted.
You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
James 5:11
41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. 42 And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
Mark 1 41-42
It was this compassion that moved him to constant fellowship which in turn led to constant anointing.
He cared enough to wait upon God for hours, and it paid off because He went about removing the sorrows of people. Sorrow fled from Him. It is compassion and love that cancels sorrow, and Jesus was full of both.
We need to put on compassion, just like Jesus not just because it’s a command but because it pleases our Lord.
We also need to put on kindness just like Christ by being generous, considerate and helpful. The genuine care we show others will be a display of the kindness in us.
Jesus was humble and meek and expects the same from us. Humility is agreement with truth because without Christ we can do nothing.
Every blessing comes from God so proper self assessment will lead to great humility.
The Bible describes Moses in numbers 12:3 as the meekness man on earth. God desires meekness because this makes us completely submissive and patient.
A meek person is very attractive to God. He can endure injustice and injury without bitterness and resentment.
He is someone who easily lets go without holding unto anger.
Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:5
Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.
2 Corinthians 10:1
He is soft, gentle and not easily provoked. Jesus, Moses and Paul exhibited those traits and look at how anointed they were. Meekness makes a person very pleasing to God.
God also desires patience. An impatient man is unattractive to God and men. Patience makes a man accept and tolerate delay and suffering without anger or bitterness.
Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.
2 Thessalonians 3:5
Patience is a great virtue and highly valued by God. If we really want to be very attractive to God, we must put on patience.
But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.
