A Critical Attitude Check

Let’s have a critical attitude check today, shall we?:

• Does your situation in life have you contentious like Sarai (Genesis 16:6) or threatening to curse God like Job’s wife (Job 2:9)?
• Does an addiction have you crabby and foolish like Nabal (1 Samuel 25)?
• Are you so busy defending the Word that you are throwing the adulterous woman (John 8:3-11) at Jesus’ feet and screaming, “Stone her! Stone her!”?
• Does the woman washing Jesus’ feet repulse you? Do you join Simon (Luke 7:36-50) in wondering how Jesus could let her touch Him?
• Do you think in your heart about the woman at the well (John 4:4-26), “Surely this woman is no candidate for the Kingdom! She’s too busy with men!”?
• Are you so concerned with “resting” on the “Sabbath” that you’d leave your brother in a “ditch” (Matthew 12:1-12)?
• Are you continually hurling burdens upon “the Church” and not lifting up fingers to help? (Remember, “they” is really “we”!).
• Do you want Barabbas or Jesus? Whether we realize it or not, our critical nature screams, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him!” in our Savior’s face. And do we recall God’s reaction to that attitude? (See Hebrews 6:4-6).

Remember: The Lord would rather have a rebel that’s repented (i.e., sons in the vineyard, the Publican and the harlots), than a religious person (woe to you scribes and Pharisees, chief priests and elders) that is rigid in all the wrong things.

Are you critical or merciful? How would this week be if each one of us made it our personal goal to show mercy rather than criticism? Remember, God promises a blessing to those who show mercy (Matthew 5:7).

Let’s try it this week, and next week, and the week after, and the following week, and the one after that, and…..!  Well, you know, as long as it is called “today”! (Hebrews 3:13). Remember, it is the kindness and mercy of God that leads people to repentance (Romans 2:4). —Lester P. Bagley

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets