Accusation And Condemnation (2)
Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. (Luke 6:37 NLT)
We are vulnerable to relapse when we encounter accusation and condemnation as we compare our lives with others. When we're new to recovery and taking a closer look at our lives, it's sometimes easy to stumble into a space where we don’t feel very good about ourselves. To counter that shame we tend to look away from ourselves and begin to observe what others are doing. We start judging their actions. We see what appear to be defects in what they are noticing and appreciating or not noticing. We read negativity into what they are saying or how they said it. We even condemn people on what they must have been thinking when they said something. We twist and redefine what's happening so we can find fault with them. We try to make them the cause of our uncomfortable feelings.
The devil loves to support this twist on truth. He's thrilled if he can get us to accuse and condemn others around us. This causes breakdown in relationships and also enables us to quickly get into the “victim mode.” How easy it is to stumble into relapse when we are living in this environment. Nothing makes the devil happier than when we fall.
How do we defeat this condition of accusation and condemnation? We need to be on guard for thoughts that accuse and condemn others. As soon as we hear them, we need to do two things: 1) check our own hearts and find out what’s not going well and 2) learn to bless others rather than condemn or curse them.
Checking Our Own Heart: We need to consider where we have not lived up to what we believed we were supposed to do. We also need to consider gap areas that are causing us pain -- what’s been left undone that is a source of comfort and encouragement. We need to ask God to make us aware of lies from the evil one that have us avoiding something because he's been telling us "It's too painful" "It's too complicated a mess." God has more than enough healing and wisdom to meet our need. Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. (1 Thessalonians 5:23 NLT)
Blessing Others: As soon as we see negatives in others, we need to start praying blessings for them. We need to leave the negatives with them rather than letting their problems become our problems. Jesus knows the way to a satisfying life and His advice is: "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27,28) There is nothing of God in accusation and condemnation so any of those sounds around us or in our heads are simply words we need to send away and not receive. God can be trusted to speak the truth to us in love and wants to challenge us to do the same with others.
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