"There is no need to forgive someone you have never judged." --James Cisneros
A well-known adage is that we usually do the best we can with the tools and knowledge we have and therefore should forgive ourselves when we make mistakes and try to do better next time. Cisneros goes on to ask, if God gives us everything we need, why didn't we have better tools and better knowledge to do better than we did? He answers this by pointing out that we are all on a journey of growth. Our ego judges us by human standards and makes us feel we've fallen short which distracts us from our journey.
I would like to expound upon this. In God's eyes, once we receive the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ, we are righteous. As we think on things above and trust Him more and more, our free wills begin allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us. It's in letting go of our previous fleshly egocentric life and focusing on the new life in us that we begin to avail ourselves to the only "tool" we'll ever need in order to do what's right no matter the situation. That "tool" is the Holy Spirit, and we access it by a surrendered will to God within us.
This begins by receiving God's gift of forgiveness. Too many times people say they accept this gift of forgiveness by God but then won't forgive themselves. They receive the Holy Spirit, but then keep letting their ego get in God's way by constantly judging themselves. This keeps us in the business of judging everything including others. It becomes a vicious cycle in which the Holy Spirit in them gets brushed aside altogether.
Only God is our judge. If we judge ourselves, then we will also try to justify ourselves, forgetting that it is God who justifies us. This is the ego's doing because the ego knows that once you forgive yourself and allow the Holy Spirit to have free reign you won't need the ego any longer.
Can you see why so many Christians have no peace? No joy? No love for themselves or others?
Father, it only takes one step off the Right Way to follow the wrong way. May I be alert always to follow Your Way.
Link to scripture: John 14:6
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I relaly enjoyed Pastor mark here.. " we do not fell clean"---- God cleanses us of all unrighteousness... yes.. and we sin if we do not allow God's forgiveness to seep into all of our being, we do sin by not accepting that Jesus died for our sins. Do we need more than that? Yes, we need to accept the forgiveness of Jesus as he sees us as clean and pure. "The enemy wants us to see that we are not clean..." So powerful and clear.. we cannot feel forgiven yet not clean" thank you for this post... Merri
ReplyDeleteCathy your thoughts on judging and forgiving are so insightful. Most assuredly the Holy Spirit gave you this wonderful wisdom. Thank you for sharing it with me. Hugs!
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