Feeling Critical?

I read a devotional entitled "Beware of Criticizing Others" by Oswald Chambers from his book "My Utmost for His Highest". It was so well said and so convicting, I had to share at least most of it.

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"The average Christian is the most piercingly critical individual known. Criticism is one of the ordinary activities of people, but in the spiritual realm nothing is accomplished by it. The effect of criticism is the dividing up of the strengths of the one being criticized. The Holy Spirit is the only one in the proper position to criticize, and He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding.



Criticism serves to make you harsh, vindictive, and cruel, and leaves you with the soothing and flattering idea that you are somehow superior to others. You must constantly beware of anything that causes you to think of yourself as a superior person.



There is no escaping the penetrating search of my life by Jesus. If I see a little speck in your eye, it means that I have a plank in my own (Matt. 7:3-5). Every time I judge, I condemn myself (Romans 2:17-24). Stop having a measuring stick for other people. There is always at least one more fact, which we know nothing about, in every person's situation. The first thing God does is to give us a thorough spiritual cleansing. After that, there is no possibility of pride remaining in us. I have never met a person I could despair of, or lose all hope for, after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God."

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