The Forty-Day Word Fast: a Spiritual Journey to Eliminate Toxic Words From Your Life by Tim Cameron

Author:Tim Cameron [Cameron, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charisma House
Published: 2015-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

FIND THE MORE EXCELLENT WAY

Yet I will show you a more excellent way. . .

—1 CORINTHIANS 12:31

IT IS EASY to get stuck at a particular place in life and for that place to contribute to a dysfunctional lifestyle. We regularly see people who have been trapped in a station of existence over many years: the man who never grows up emotionally and is always like a teenager, a woman who continually struggles with gossip, or people who can’t seem to overcome their addictions. I believe what really happens to these people—and many more of us than will admit it—is that we eventually become extremists in our area of dysfunction. In essence, over the years, a person gradually moves to an extreme place in that state of being.

When it comes to judgments, criticism, sarcasm, negativity, complaining, and gossiping, we rarely have these practices in our life in moderation. Each one of these states of being leads to extreme behaviors and lifestyles. The problem with these behaviors is that we are usually living in deception in them and don’t recognize the extremity of our behavior. At the same time, there are polar opposites of these lifestyles in the positive realm.

Jesus spoke a very somber statement when He declared there is no middle ground between the kingdom of heaven and the world: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matt. 12:30, NIV). A person is either with Christ or against Him. There is no middle ground in loving our Lord. You either love Him or are His enemy. A person either works for the kingdom of God or works against it.

And so it is when it comes to judgment, criticism, sarcasm, negativity, complaining, and gossip. They begin small in a person’s life and end as extreme negatives with serious consequences. We may think we just gossip a little or complain only now and then or rarely judge others. However, if we are to be authentic followers of Christ, there is little room for these practices in our life: “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless” (James 1:26, NIV).

THE JUDGE BECOMES CHILDLIKE

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

—MATTHEW 7:2, NIV

Being judgmental is a position in life that guarantees grief and sorrow. A little bit of judgment goes a long way in producing misery. The chronically judgmental person sets in motion one of the eternal laws of the kingdom: you reap what you sow. However, with judgment, you reap so much more than you sow. A judgmental person judges a woman he works with because she is challenged in keeping her weight in check. Later in life, when his wife struggles with a weight problem, he feels the dramatic judgments of others.

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