Managing Worry and Anxiety By Jean HolthausSample

  Day 5

Suspend Judgment and Embrace Acceptance

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus admonished his audience, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

We were not created to judge. That’s God’s job. Simply put, judgment is turning my opinions, ideas, or beliefs into facts and then acting upon my judgments as though they are facts. When we trust ourselves to figure out what is right and wrong, fear and anxiety kill our ability to live connected to and trusting God. It also cripples our ability to live in freedom. The anxiety this creates has been scientifically proven to shorten our lives. 

In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (synonyms for right and wrong). They were told the result would be death. Satan tempted them to believe learning to judge right from wrong would give them the ability to do what they currently had to trust God to do for them. Until this time, they had trusted God to tell them what was right and what was wrong. Their job was to trust He loved them with all His heart, was taking care of them, and would guide them through whatever life held.

We can’t do whatever we want and expect to have a healthy life. However, we also don’t have to spend our lives judging. Judging doesn’t make our lives healthy and full. If my life is to be oriented around what brings life, I must be aware of what brings life to me and to others in any given situation. What brings life to me when I am five won’t be the same as what brings life to me when I’m fifty-five. What brings life to me also won’t always be the same as what brings life to my best friend.

Being tuned in to life-giving choices does not require judgment, but an intimate connection with God—the Source of all life and the One who promises to lead us in ways that bring life. Out of this intimate connection with God, I can then approach the situations in my life by asking myself and God, “What will produce life in this situation?”

How does your judgment of yourself and others kill your peace and freedom? What is one thing you can do to replace judgment with trust in God?