Someone Else's Servant

I was thinking about this over the last few days. I think we all fall into this, in one form or another. We think we know what's best for somebody else: he should exercise more, she should eat better, she dresses too flashy, he doesn't go to church, they don't go to small group, they don't baptize "right," you should be dressed to the "nines" for church, you don't use the right version of the Bible, and so on and so forth. If we haven't said one of these things, it's been similar. We've all done it, usually with the best intentions. We know that we don't have it all together, but if they could just "get it together" in the areas where we've got it together, the world would be a better place. Of course, that wouldn't even satisfy us, we'd just find something else to poke at.

Paul writes, "Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand," (Romans 14:4). Ouch! Who am I to judge another one of God's kids? Judging with the best of intentions is still judging. The Bible is clear: my job is to invite, to love on, to encourage, to lift up. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to do the rest. I had a friend once tell me, "It's our job to go catch the fish. It's the job of the Holy Spirit to clean them." We "catch" people through love, encouragement, and invitations, not with put-downs and our noses in the air. Men are made of dust; women of man's rib. What are dust and rib to judge what God has called beautiful?

Let's pray:
Lord, forgive me. I know that too many times I've looked at another of your beautiful sons and daughters and wondered why they weren't doing it "like me" or "like my church." Father, forgive me my foolish pride. As far as the world is concerned, I am nothing but rib. You have called me beautiful, as You have called all Your children beautiful. I'm sorry that I called them less. Lord, give me your eyes to see them as you see them. Give me your heart to love them as you love them. And Lord, give me the wisdom to know how to love them. Thank you, Father, for seeing me as more than rib and dust, and I thank you all the more for loving me as I am. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.