Judgment

And so, we continue our Lenten journey. Below you'll find information about the fast for this week and the reading for today. If you would like to download the guide through this first week of Lent, click here. 


FAST FOR THE WEEK: FOOD/MEALS
Pick either a type of food (like meat or carbs or even “solids”) and fast from them for the week. Or alternately, pick a meal (like breakfast or lunch) to skip on a daily basis. If you skip meals, spend that time you would have spent preparing and eating food in doing something else—prayer, or reading Scripture, or serving others, perhaps finding a way to bless someone with each of those blocks of time, even if it’s just time spent listening to them. 

Keep journal entries of what it’s like to go hungry, even if it’s just for one meal. What is it like to begin to assert some mastery over your body these past two weeks? How does your body/mind respond to that? If you forgo a whole category of food, consider: What is it like to deny a craving? Is it easy or hard. How does that craving grow the more you deny it? Does it eventually become easier? Why?


PASSAGE FOR THE DAY
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

39 He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." (Luke 6:37-42, NIV)


REFLECTION QUESTIONS AND PRAYER
Consider: Who do you end up feeling most judgmental about? Why? How can we be passionate about the truth of the Gospel and convinced of the rightness of life in the way of Jesus without coming across as a jerk? If you were wrong about something how would you want someone to approach you? 

Pray: That God would soften your heart towards others and most specifically—show you the “specks” in your own eye.