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I Am Free to Love You When I Set You Free from My Judgements

I Am Free to Love You When I Set You Free from My Judgements

To Jesus, judgment is when you “look at the speck of sawdust in another person’s eye.” He says STOP IT! Don’t do that! When you look at the speck you no longer see that person, you only see the speck. The speck is whatever issue or behavior you are judging about that person.

His remedy is to remove the plank in your own eye so you can see clearly to help them remove the speck from their eye. The plank in your eye is your judgment of that person. Your judgment is clouding you from seeing the person apart from the speck, you only see the problem. Remove your judgment and you will see clearly to help them.

Notice he doesn’t say to ignore the speck. Jesus wants you to address the speck, if you see someone caught in sin you are to help restore them. But if you only see their problem, it will blind you from helping them in a healthy way.

God is not holding our sins against us, we should not hold people’s sins against them either. Love keeps no record of wrong. Does that mean they get away with it? No way, they’ll reap what they sow, but you’re not the judge, jury, and punisher.

Listening to People Develops Trust and Open Communication in Our Relationships

Listening to People Develops Trust and Open Communication in Our Relationships

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

— Dr. Stephen Covey

Most people just want to get their point across. We often ignore the other person but pretend we're listening. We selectively hear what we want to respond to but often miss their meaning. Most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. We prepare in our mind what we're going to say while they’re still speaking. WE FILTER EVERYTHING THROUGH OURSELVES. Consequently, we decide prematurely what the other person means before he/she finishes communicating. This is called judgement, more on that next week.

God Listens to Us

Let’s look at a few passages and get some insight from God on how to listen. These are wonderful promises about the character and faithfulness of God but we can also learn some universal principles about communication from these passages.

I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. Psalm 116:1-2