Daily Devotional: February 2

Week 2, Day 2 The Gospel According to Matthew, Chapter 7

We have heard all of these verses before. The ideas of not judging, of seeking the Kingdom first, and of building a house on the rock are now over 2000 years old. Sometimes it is in our best interest to try to forget that we have heard all this before. Try to put yourself in the position of the first hearers of this message. The eye-witnesses to the Sermon on the Mount would have been standing wide-eyed and slack-jawed and some of these concepts. They are so counter-cultural to the 1st century and they are still counter-cultural in the 21st.

Is your eye clean?

We are still a quick-to-judge society. If you don't believe me, you must not be on twitter. There isn't much grace for people who make mistakes in the public eye. We are waiting for people to mess up and then we can pounce on them, making them look bad and ourselves look better. 

Jesus' admonition that we avoid judging others in order to keep ourselves from judgement holds true in the world of public falls from grace. Those who are viewed as judgemental have a much more difficult time when they make a mistake. They are the ones the masses love to rip into pieces. The best plan is to not be viewed as judgemental in the first place.

Is your eye clean?

The ability to keep asking, seeking, and knocking also relies on the ability to stop judging other people. We are so worried about what other people are doing, and whether they are being "adequately" punished for what we think is wrong. How much energy is wasted worrying about other people's sin? Other people's problems? How much better could we seek God if we worried only about how well we are seeking God?

Too often I will focus on someone else's problem or what someone else is doing wrong because it distracts me from having to clean up messes in my own life.

Spend some time in silence. Ask God to show you where you have been quick to focus on someone else's problems. Ask God to show you your problems.