Family Devotional
Day Fourteen
“Do not judge others and you will not be
judged. For you will be treated as you treat others.” Matthew 7:1
Worldwide, magpies are known as chattering
birds. A yellow-billed one in California was said to have a noisy voice, almost
like a whine.
Stories diverge though as to whether people
regard them as good or bad. Despite several attempts throughout history to
poison them, they continued to remain abundant. So in folklore they were
sometimes thought to have supernatural powers.
Unfortunately, many people groups in history
have also been regarded as good or evil and attempts were made to exterminate
them when others felt threatened by them.
In Jesus’ time the religious leaders of the
Sanhedrin decided through an illegal trial to crucify Him. The early Christians
were hunted by Roman authorities and died for their faith. The Jewish people
and Gypsies were among those targeted during the Holocaust. And sadly, even
today, many ethnic groups are regarded as good by some and evil by others.
But good or evil is not due to the ethnic
race of a people group, but by individual choices that each person makes in
their heart and by their actions.
“Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.
Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil” (Proverbs 3:7).
The only one who can honestly judge or know
each person’s heart is God. And through Jesus’ gift of grace, each heart that
has been evil can be changed towards good and transformed by His sacrifice for
every person.
Action
1. Listen
for unkind words this week, said either to you or to others.
2. Write
down the reason those words were being said. Did they have any truth in them or
were the speakers being mean?
3. Think of
some ways you can say kind words to those who are mean to you or others for no understandable
reason.
Read More
Matthew
7:1-5
John 3:18-21
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