Daily Devo: July 6 Thinking Thursday

     Every week I work with my children on the exact same devotional topics that I post here. This week has been especially interesting because I noticed that their pattern of excusing their own behaviors mimics that of adults (with less pizazz). See I would correct one of my children for being critical to another and explain how they could be encouraging or simply silent instead. Then they would go on and on about how the other child "never" does that and how they "always" say hurtful things and how basically, it was the other child's fault. Like a good momma,  I explain that someone else's actions do not dictate nor excuse our own. That's when it hits me, we as adults do the exact same thing! Essentially, we criticize others and say they deserve it and walk away with a clear conscience. We are toddlers in adult bodies.
     The thing is, I don't think we got this way on purpose. I truly don't believe any of us set out thinking "Yes, I want to try to make myself feel better by cutting down all those around me and not actually doing anything to improve myself. That sounds like a jolly good time". I think somewhere along the way, we tripped one too many times and felt that maybe it was just too hard to put things right again. Perhaps the snake whispered in our ear that we were just too much trouble or too far gone and we believed him. So rather than go to God and seek forgiveness and repent, we found denial. In denial, we found that the ache of knowing we weren't right was still there so we had to soothe it by drinking in the faults of others on a regular basis. And here we are. Feeding an unquenchable critical spirit because we aren't sure how to stop.
We're reading Scripture, but are we living Scripture? We're praying, but are we living in prayer? We're seeking God's will, but are we seeking Him for each breath? Are we so rooted and grounded in our life with God so deeply that if He turned away we would know the exact moment? Would we know His voice if He called to us?  Do you feel His presence or do you just keep reassuring yourself He's there because Scripture says He's there?
     If you are feeding your critical spirit and tending a garden of weeds, then it's a signal that something is not right in your relationship with your Heavenly Father. Christ has offered you living water, but you are still drinking from the bitter waters of Marah instead. There is a break in your relationship that must be redeemed and it cannot be done until you come to the place that you are ready to acknowledge both the sin and the need. Do not let anything go that keeps you from a relationship with Christ. Do not write off anything as "small" that interrupts the presence of God in your life. If a critical spirit is coming between you and the Lord, then it is no small thing. It is the biggest thing in your life at the moment and must take priority. Then and only then is when we come to restoration.
I come back again and again to Jeremiah 31:2-4 (emphasis mine)

Thus says the Lord:“The people who survived the sword    found grace in the wilderness;when Israel sought for rest, the Lord appeared to him from far away.I have loved you with an everlasting love;    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.Again I will build you, and you shall be built,    O virgin Israel!Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines    and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.

And lastly let me leave you with this encouragement from Paul from Philippians 3:12-16,

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.