I recently made the mistake of passing judgment on a Christian who took seriously Jesus' command to not judge, but to forgive instead. When I misjudged (as all judgment by us is, by the way), I learned by the Holy Spirit in the following days, that I was looking through glasses darkened by a certain unbending attitude. At the time I made the judgment, then, I thought she was wrong and needed correction. I had not known the Holy Spirit was using her to add enthusiasm and a wonderfully needed change of direction for my class. Now I know it, but then I didn't.

When I asked her to adjust for the class, she complied, all the while, submitting the experience she was having to the Lord. She knew if there was any rising of her flesh, she would need to relinquish it to the Lord for healing of her heart. She did not want to project her interpretation of what happened onto me, a blind child of God, unable to see the whole picture. By her willingness to humbly do what I had asked her to do, and willingly go to her knees later, praying for me and praying for the situation, I believe she helped the light come on in my soul in a faster and painless way.

Not everything we go through that involves learning needs to be painful. I can attest to that. I just experienced some painless growth BECAUSE (and I believe this with all my heart) the Christian did not return my judgment to me in the form of anger or bitterness but instead, went to the Lord. I didn't suffer the usual repercussion of my error because of this sister's maturity.

Within the next two days after I had passed judgment, God found my willing heart and I allowed His hands to remold and reshape it so that I could be more flexible for the class which isn't really mine anyway. The class is the Lord's. If it should become mine, I know it is doomed to fail.

I praise God for the trust this Christian had and her knowing that God would fix the situation so that it was really fixed. When we attempt to adjust other people's souls, we assume much, but know little. How do we judge in the first place? We take bits of data that our highly inadequate senses have revealed to us, we compile that data into a mechanism (the mind) that has been bent by strong winds, tainted by our experiences in the past, and allowed to fester and stew in the carnality of the world. Is this the mind of Christ? Can any of us really trust our ability to correctly evaluate someone else's soul or the entire situation? What prompts us to think we can understand hearts or that somehow we can know when a heart is ready to receive the Lord?

We need to get humble and know that God is much more than a mere icon. He is real and available, always ready and willing to do the work in our hearts. But, I don't believe He will force Himself on us. As long as we think we've got things under control, He will step back and allow us to fail. He knows when we get tired of taking a beating from the devil, we will go to Jesus and rest in Him.

Our lives are not about “Do it Yourself.” Our lives are about backing off, letting go, and relinquishing our dominion over everything. We must take captive our thoughts. We must willingly give dominionship back to God in order to receive the abundant life Jesus promised us. As we relinquish our thoughts to Him, we will be more and more valuable to Him in bringing in the lost sheep and He will send more people our way as He is able to trust us. In addition, life is a lot more fun when we don't have to take so much responsibility for other people. Life is more a joy when we pray instead of say so much to others. If we really want to be helpful, we will stay away from our know-it-all ways and fall back into trusting our Lord and Savior, Jesus instead. This world IS a “Do it yourself” world, but look around you and see the results of doing everything our own way. It might make us laugh, if it all weren't so tragic.

I recently had a reunion (by e-mail) with a cousin I had not been in communication with for many years. He relayed his story that affirms this point.

Many years ago, the Lord found him, redeemed him and he chose to put his trust fully in Him. His wife, however, had not yet come to the knowledge of Christ. He had just been fired from his job because he did not want to offer a bribe to a client as his boss had requested he do. Now, jobless, he prayed constantly to “hear” the Lord so that he might follow His leading. His job had been one that enabled him to build a fine house for his family and it gave him many other material goods as well. But now, with his job gone, he only had 8 weeks of reserve capital left.

His wife thought he was acting crazy, when he spent much time in prayer. She thought he should be out looking for work. One day, after coming back into the house, he saw that his wife was all packed. Her intention was to leave him and go home to her mother. She couldn't take any more of his silliness. She was taking their young children with her.

My cousin was instantly grieved in his heart and took a drive to a favorite prayer spot on a nearby hill. There he poured his heart out to God, crying, “I have no job, and now I'm about to lose my family. Is this Your will, God?” He was gone to this quiet place about 45 minutes. When he returned, his wife had been touched by the Holy Spirit and had unpacked all her things and put them away. She was weeping, as she asked for his forgiveness.

My cousin's conclusion was that God corrected what was not in His will. Had he lashed out at his wife for not respecting what he was doing, had he chastised her for not coming to the Lord with him, had he done anything other than what his heart told him he must do, she would have left him. By my cousin's non-judgment, then, and humble prayer to God, his wife was corrected internally by the Holy Spirit. This is the ideal scenario, where God does the work, not the person.

Though it veers from the direction of this chapter, I want to share more of what happened to him. He often wrote phone numbers on scraps of paper and envelopes which he left in his pockets. When his wife did the wash, they would disintegrate, becoming unreadable. One particular day as his wife did the wash, she removed a piece of paper that had a phone number on it and, without telling him, put it in his sock drawer.

My cousin was sitting in the living room, praying about a job, asking God to lead him, when he heard a voice say, “There's a phone number in your sock drawer.” He went to his sock drawer, pulled out the number and immediately remembered it was the number of a “headhunter” in Atlanta, Georgia. He called the number and this man answered. After a brief discussion of his qualifications, the man invited him to Atlanta, saying he'd set him up with some interviews. My cousin had 11 interviews in the next few days, receiving 10 job offers. God is awesome!

God corrected me when I was resistant to the new direction my sister in Christ was taking the class I was teaching. God also corrected my cousin's wife, helping her trust that her husband was of sound mind and that she did not need to be worried about his decisions. God corrects us from the inside when humble prayers are prayed and wills submitted to our loving Father. Correction, TRUE correction can only happen under conditions where one of the parties acts responsibly and humbly submits it all to the Lord. God will do what is right and what needs to be done. It may or may not comply with what we think needs to be done. One thing for certain, though. We can count on God to take care of everything. Isn't it exciting to know that with a complete submission to the Holy Spirit, we don't ever need to fail at anything again? Does that sound too far-fetched? Let me state it another way. If we stay with Him, love on Him, cry to Him, submit ourselves and our situations always to Him, we are on the only true path to success possible in this world. Yes, with God all things are possible but only as we realize it is not our will, but God's will, that we want done.

God is the One and only Handy Man we ever need. He is the great Fixer, the Healer, the Comforter. He alone has the key to all hearts. He alone can make changes that matter, changing lives for the better. Find out to what extent God can fix the problems in your life. Don't waste another fruitless minute struggling with your own ways of doing things. Let God be God for you, beginning now!

Have any of you had this wonderful experience where you cried out to God regarding the behavior of someone and that behavior changed in the other person? Marion Bond West in her book, “The Nevertheless Principle,” wrote the story describing her first published book in which she had tried and tried to get her husband to read and approve the manuscript. He had said that since he was in it, he must read it and give her his approval. The problem was that he simply would not do it, even though he always said he would. One evening she had had enough. She locked herself in the bathroom and cried out to God for help, not so much that God change him, but that she would have peace if it was not God's will that this book be published. She also cried out that she thought the book was good and wondered why her husband didn't like it.

After that holy time, she washed her face, came down the stairs, and began to prepare dinner. Her husband came in and told her that her book was good. That God told him not to block her writing. She could go ahead and send it in to the publisher (she had already gotten a contract for the book).

Isn't that a wonderful story? I believe that the principle behind all these stories mentioned above is true. Why do we insist that God can't handle our problems? Why not give them all over to Him now? Faith is required before this can be accomplished. Do you have it? Be willing to attain more of it. Let it grow, like a mustard seed as more and more of your experiences of relinquishment prove the truth that Jesus really is the way, the truth and the life. Be expectant and confident that this is so and watch your faith grow!

More!

The children recently went through their own versions of rebellion and were hard to handle in a loving and caring manner. Rather than lash back at them and make them see our “authority” and demand respect from them, with renewed faith, we were guided to take these incidents to God in prayer. We took some imagery given to us by Jesus and saw their obstinacy as mountains looming in front of us, which Jesus said we could say, “Be tossed into the sea,” and they would be. What a powerful and truthful image! Saying this is a way of completely releasing the problem or problems to God and really knowing He has it under control.

When we did this in an intimate group prayer for one of the kids, the very next day we received an apology for his behavior. We didn't expect such a quick response. We did not have a group prayer but only Eva and myself, when we took the other child's mountain to God. In the deepest part of our hearts, we pictured the mountain being tossed into the ocean, sinking down as we surrendered it to the care and healing of God. Our faith was a little more bolstered by the success with the other child just one day earlier, so we knew with even greater faith, that God could handle this child as well.

After the prayer, this child approached us in tears saying she was unable to sleep and wanted us to pray for her. What a lovely thing it was to witness her humble spirit and her willingness to be taught by God and her parents when just a few minutes earlier there was combativeness and even meanness in her spirit.

I can't say that we have found the magic button to push. Or, if we have, that we will always push it correctly. But I can say that evidence is mounting that if we will lay our hearts on the line with God, regarding other people, and if we will cry out to Him, He will work a wonder. He will perform a miracle, healing not only the ones who have perturbed us, but healing us as well. What more could we possibly want? I urge you to join us in giving prayer the chance it deserves and giving God all authority to heal those who bring out the worst in us. By giving them to God, in a surprise that beats all surprises, we will discover a wonderful side-effect: Praying for others helps the worst in us to be healed, as well.

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