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Judging ourselves

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Myms:
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.(1 Cor. 11:31).

Over the past few months I have been giving this verse quite a bit of attention! My response goes something like this: I fall short of God’s will in some way, I feel convicted, I have a time of inner self reflection, I try and put things right (with God, with others), I look to see if I should make changes in my life to avoid it happening again.

I would be interested to know how others apply this verse practically / proactively in their own lives.

p.s. I wish judging myself was as easy as judging others  ;D

Myms

Dave in Tenn:
There are two powerful aspects of 'judgement' which I've learned here.

1.  It's 'educational' aspect.  "When THY judgements are in the earth, the whole world shall learn righteousness."  Not simply learn ABOUT Righteousness, but have Righteousness 'written in our hearts'.  Anytime we learn something true and apply it to our lives, we are 'judging ourselves.'.  So to learn, to contemplate and meditate on what Ive learned, and to obey what I learn--is part of judging myself.

2.  It does something--it has postive results.  Again, "When THY judgements are in the earth, the whole world shall learn righteousness." This seperates it from just beating up on ourselves or just being a theological hobbyist.  It changes life.  I've had my life changed so many times that I understand not every change is 180 degrees radical.  Most of the time, it's a nudge on the left urging us right, or a smack on the right urging us left.  You're not quite the same when you've honestly judged yourself with a Righteous judgement.

It's a thoughtful question.  Thanks for asking it.   

Kat:

Hi Myms,

Judging ourself most times seems to be is a process. As you were saying, "I fall short of God’s will in some way, I feel convicted." Yes, it's sort of like that for me. I become acutely aware of a sin, let's say it's getting angry in traffic. So at first I am convicted when I commit the sin and feel shame and hate that I gave in to anger about some traffic violation I felt towards myself. Everytime it happens I feel real bad when I lose my temper as soon as it happens. But then I begin to catch it sooner and notice I'm getting angry and try not to get so angry and tell myself I am not going to get angry like that anymore. So gradually over time the anger does get less and less, until I get to the point when someones driving bothers me, but I realize it's starting and catch it BEFORE I get angry. Then I work on just feeling less and less of the anger.

You know I realize this process is going on and I try to keep positive and say things like, 'hey they are just trying to get down the road too.' Or I will picture them as being someone I know and care about, like my sister or Dad. And over time I really don't feel the anger in traffic any more.

So that is one way I think judging ourself is worked out in me. I know God in His mercy only shows us our sins in increments, I'm very thankful for that.

mercy, peace and love
Kat

Myms:
I’d never considered the verse "When Thy judgements are in the earth, the whole world shall learn righteousness" to apply to me now! How absurd of me, and if you turn it on its head ….. and if you can ‘look over your shoulder’ and see lessons learned and a growth in righteousness then you can be confident that God’s judgements have indeed been at work in your life. How wonderfully encouraging – thank you Dave.

Hey Kat – imagining the person who is annoying you as being someone close to you – I love that! I shall definitely be adding that to my bag of assault tools!

'I know God in His mercy only shows us our sins in increments, I'm very thankful for that.' Ditto Kat!

Myms

G. Driggs:
Not sure if this is relevant to the subject, but I realize sometimes when I'm tired I'm more prone to sin. It's like my shields go down or something. So now whenever I'm feeling tired, either physically or mentally, I try to be more aware and careful of where my thoughts might take me. I don't always succeed in curbing carnal desires, but at least God is making me a little more aware of when I'm vunrable.

G.Driggs

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