Late Night Thoughts.....

Matthew 7:12 'Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.'

Sounds simple enough, so why do we have such a hard time with obeying the 'Golden Rule?' If we back up a bit to verse 1 it says 'Do not judge others...' These two verses go hand in hand, in my opinion. I've never met anyone who wants to truly be judged by another human being.

There's a popular saying (that really gets on my nerves) and it goes 'Only God Can Judge Me!' While this is true I wonder if we really understand what it would mean to truly be judged by Almighty God. To be judged by a magnificent and HOLY God is terrifying to me. In the OT when Moses asks to see God, He only agrees to let Moses see His back, because for a Holy God to come in contact with filthy flesh would have been the end of Moses. But even in the 'gloom and doom' OT God still had our backs (pun intended.) His grace was evident even in the harshest of times.

Psalm 103:8 says 'The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.'

This is good news.....for me anyway. I tend to let my anger get the better of me more than I'd like to admit. I tend to judge and have to quickly catch myself and stop. I tend to put my foot-in-mouth far to often because I think I'm more knowledgable than I really am. To sum up my ramblings I would say: Don't judge, you hardly ever know the ENTIRE story; treat others how you want to be treated; and remember, always remember, that God is a loving God above all. He wants good for us (all of us) and while he is a jealous God, He is jealous because He wants us and wants what's best for us. He sent His Son, Jesus, to save us from our sins. And this next part is only my opinion (so you can take it or leave it) but not only did He come to save us from our sin, but also to save us from ourselves and others who more than likely always choose to judge/hate/criticize/belittle/put down before choosing love. So please, let's choose to love, above all else.

I'll remind you, and please remind me.