I have been in a season of hard.
Hard seasons can result in some serious growth and learning though.
As I began to search out things in Scripture and learn one new thing it often resulted in the following question: "If I believe this is true, then... what about this? How does it apply here?"
As I shared here, I was seeking out what does it mean to judge. "Judge not" was something I was hearing a lot of and it was confusing because as I said we all make judgments every day. Into this word family of "Judge" we could add, assumptions and jumping to conclusions. Everyday we use our experiences, knowledge, perceptions to make decisions. We wake up, we look outside to see if the sun is out or is it gray, cloudy and rainy. Then we decide what to wear or our mode of transportation. We evaluate countenances, expressions, the presence of tears or smiles, the inflection of a voice, loudness of a voice, to make decisions. We make judgments about relationships, is this relationship good for me? When this is done, it hurts, I don't like it... So how did all this mesh, because if I believe God's word is true and He doesn't contradict Himself, then how does all of this work together?
I was being challenged about making assumptions and jumping to conclusions. It was a rough season. Because in the meantime, the people challenging me, were themselves doing just what they were finger pointing at me about. Yet, I wasn't responsible for their actions. I was responsible for mine. So what was the truth? What would God have me to learn in this season?
I learned God really does not contradict Himself.
While I knew that He says do and don't. Where there is a don't, there is often a do.
I have learned: We have to use the head on our shoulders and pray and seek Him and ASK Him these questions. He will answer and reveal. Man in and of himself, can be quite sinful and selfish. And if we look to others, what they say and how they quote Scripture, well it can be just downright wrongly done! Shocking, I know. Scripture can be quoted, even by upstanding people we love and respect. It can be misapplied, sometimes the misapplication is just ignorance. Ignorance of other instructions. Not that one instruction voids out another, because then God would be contradicting Himself, but because God knows that the problems of mankind are not simple nor black and white sometimes. Sometimes the instructions are specific for certain relationships. I came across an instance of two different set of instructions. And said, Whoa! God, if you don't contradict yourself, this is looking pretty contradicting, what is going on here? And you know what, the more I re-read and read and read and prayed and carefully looked at what I was reading, He showed me. In this particular instance, the instructions were for 2 different scenarios: How to interact with unbelievers vs How to interact with believers. When I had that aha moment, I also understood God's motive and purpose for two different set of instructions. One was based on the idea of loving an unbeliever to the point, that they would see the value of a relationship with God. The other was to correct an unbeliever who was setting a bad example of what it meant to call one's self Christian. If we are going to put on the name of Christ, then we need to consider how we represent Him. BUT, also, when a believer is not doing as he ought according to Scripture he has broken the relationship he had with God. Restoring that relationship should be the focus. Motives, motives, motives...what is the motivation, purpose and end goal that is desired.
More often than not, all the do(s) and don't(s) just really boil down to motives of the heart.
I learned what Judge means.
I learned what discern means.
Sometimes we need to be brave enough to say, no I am not judging, I am discerning. To the best of my knowledge and ability this is what I have discerned. The difference between jumping to conclusions and making assumptions sometimes can be boiled down to emotions and knee jerk reactions. Ideally discerning would be more logical brain thinking than emotional heart reaction.
I learned that we all jump to conclusions and make assumptions. It is what we do next that is most important. Do we hold to those conclusions and/or assumptions? Or do we question them or allow them to be questioned? Having them questioned doesn't make them necessarily wrong. Sometimes, the interpretation is correct but the heart motive is not correct. Then the following saying could be applied: Two wrongs don't make a Right. In this case, there are two issues and it all boils down to heart and motive and while conclusions and assumptions might be right, then the whole get the log out of one's own eye verse can be applied.
It all brings new meaning to, quick to listen and slow to speak. Sometimes, while we work on our own log, we still need to address what is going on in the other person as well. Which was a whole other lesson I learned.
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