Pointing Fingers

By Cheri Cowell

Have you ever spent time with someone who finds fault with everything and everyone? These people drain us. It’s easy if we just chime in, but tiring if we’re working hard not to join them. While walking by someone dressed inappropriately a negative comment slips, then the conversation quickly turns to the loose morals of society and how our mother never would have let us out of the house dressed that way. How easily we use our superior yardstick to judge others.

In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders were the keepers of the moral codes, and thus arbiters of who was acceptable to God. If anyone had studied the codes they would have discovered no one followed them and thus no one deserved acceptance. In order to cover this weakness, the elite created more difficult-to-track rules. Following rules—and pointing fingers when they were broken—consumed them.

Jesus came along and said, “I am setting up a new kingdom with a new way.” He knew we couldn’t keep all the rules, and that keeping rules was not the point. He wanted us to simply love others as we have been loved, and to give grace as we’ve been given grace. That doesn’t leave us much room for pointing fingers, does it?

PRAYER: Lord, please forgive my finger-pointing and help me to offer more grace.

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you,” Ephesians 4:32 KJV.

Today’s devotional is by Cheri Cowell, a student at Asbury Theological Seminary (Orlando) writes and speaks on the deep questions of faith. Her first book Direction: Discernment for the Decisions of Your Life (Beacon Hill) is being called a biblically sound, no nonsense approach to making God-centered life choices. For comments or to inquire about her speaking schedule, visit www.DirectionAndDiscernment.com.