From Judgement to Compassion

God has been repeatedly slapping me in the head recently and I couldn't be happier about it. Why has He been doing this? Because I'm judging and prideful and He needs to just beat me to the ground until I have nothing to be proud of and therefore nothing to judge people against. In fact, it's not that he's beating me to the ground, it's more of a way of teaching me to realize that I was already on face down on the ground and He is the only reason I'm up. Yes, this is much more accurate.

Now the biggest lesson I've learned so far is how much I lack compassion. This whole lesson kind of started as I was reading 1 Corinthians. I don't know quite how God used this verse to reveal this to me but I'll try to explain as best I can. Anyway, the verse is from chapter 2: verses 15-16. It says "The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 'For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ." Well I wrestled with this for a few minutes. I'm not supposed to be judgmental person right? Well shortly after it was like, "oh wow, but I am!" Then I was brought back to the verse. Wait, so am I supposed to be judging? Of course not. So what is this verse saying?!  Well, although I don't think the lesson God taught me through this verse is necessarily what Paul is telling the Corinthians it's still a biblical lesson nonetheless (amazing how God does that by the way). Anyway I realized that I am supposed to judge all things. When I see a fellow brother or sister sinning the judgement is that I know that is a sin. That's the judgement. Now after I have made that judgement, SO many times I just get disgusted and then go speak slanderously of them. ABSURD! This is not biblical. Consider when Jesus sees the large crowd of five thousand men. "When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things." Mark 6:34. When Jesus sees people that are lost, he is moved with compassion!  So when I see that person sinning, I shouldn't get disgusted and go talk about it. I am moved with compassion! This will most likely lead to some kind of direction from God. Maybe He wants me to go talk to them about it and call them out on it with boldness and with His authority. Other times maybe I will just felt led to pray for them. Surely it is not go talk about how bad or wrong they are. It's so hard for me to do. I'm not good at it. I'm praying about it and trying to get better at it and I know that the Lord will work on my heart. This is the important thing I need to understand, I must seek the Lord to always change my heart and move me. If I focus on only the "doing" I will not get it. The "doing" will result from seeking the Lord and receiving his compassion in me.

Praise God for all the things revealed to me. It is not by my will that my ears and heart have been opened.