Critical Spirit

You disagree with what you’ve just read. What’s your response? That response is so telling. 

Social media has created monsters—even among Christians. We all have a voice…and we’re willing to hide behind a screen and give full vent to an opinion we’d never say to another person’s face. 

I recently saw a sweet photo of Julia Roberts sharing tea and a card game with her niece. People were hateful! Julia was relaxed in her home with no makeup. People were incensed that she’d post a normal, natural photo. She didn’t measure up to their expectations of her—and they were critical and hateful. Never mind she was enjoying time with her niece. 

Do you strike the keys of your phone with a quick response when you disagree with someone’s FB post? Are you quick to judge or be critical? Do you feel “right” and need to set the record straight? Do you have a need to add your own editorial after someone has offered a scriptural post—to show there’s more to think about or that God has shown you more? Do you feel the need to critique and can’t restrain yourself from doing just that? 

Examine yourself for a critical spirit…also known as a pharisaical spirit. Ask God to give you a gentle spirit—a spirit allowing God to change the hearts of others. Ask for a spirit of grace which recognizes we’re all in process of growing and learning. God MAY have you respond. But He’ll never ask you to be critical. He’ll have you speak truth in love. It will be a spirit to edify, love, and help someone grow. 

I encourage you to read all of Ephesians 4. Below are verses 15-16:

“but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”