Tuesday 10 September, 2013

2 If you judge someone else, you have no excuse for it. When you judge another person, you are judging yourself. You do the same things you blame others for doing. 2 We know that when God judges those who do evil things, he judges fairly. 3 Though you are only a human being, you judge others. But you yourself do the same things. So how do you think you will escape when God judges you? 4 Do you make fun of God’s great kindness and favor? Do you make fun of God when he is patient with you? Don’t you realize that God’s kindness is meant to turn you away from your sins? 5 But you are stubborn. In your heart you are not sorry for your sins. You are storing up anger against yourself. The day of God’s anger is coming. Then his way of judging fairly will be shown. 6 God “will give to each person in keeping with what he has done.” (Psalm 62:12; Proverbs 24:12) 7 God will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good. They want glory, honor, and life that never ends. 8 But there are others who only look out for themselves. They don’t accept the truth. They go down an evil path. God will pour out his burning anger on them. 9 There will be trouble and suffering for everyone who does evil. That is meant first for the Jews. It is also meant for the non-Jews. 10 But there will be glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good. That is meant first for the Jews. It is also meant for the non-Jews. 11 God treats everyone the same.

How hard is it to trust God to deal with people who do the wrong thing! When someone hurts us we want to be sure that they pay for their actions so we are not good at leaving it to God. We also are great at forgetting that we also do the wrong thing sometimes and that everyone has equally decided that they can run their own lives and don’t need God so we are all equal before God.

Trust is a big thing. Often it’s described as something that needs to be earned but God asks us to trust Him based on what He says in the Word. Sometimes our specific experiences do not obviously line up with what we want to happen or what we see in the Word. But God is worthy of our trust at all times. Also God is full of grace and we appreciate that when it is directed toward us but are not so happy when it is directed toward someone we want to see punished.

I love that God is full of grace. I love that we have a God who doesn’t remember the things I have done wrong. That He loves me more than I can imagine all the time without change. I want to grow in character so that I can learn how to forgive like God forgives. I also want to learn how to leave all the terrible things that happen in the world to God to deal with – He has a much better idea of what is going on and what is really going on inside each person – He knows if situations have arisen from mistakes or malicious intent – I usually don’t.

Thank you so much Lord that You are trustworthy, that You are full of grace and love and that the world is a much better place when we trust You. Help us to learn how to love like You do and to forgive like You do.

Written by Therese Manning