What Keeps Me from Growing (7 of 10) - Critical Attitude

Here’s how you can identify such a person.

1. They have an opinion about everything.
2. They have an inflated estimation of their own abilities or knowledge.
3. They have developed making people feel bad into an art form.
4. They often judge people’s motives, which is something none of us is ever able to do.
5. They tend to be critics, not doers.

 

What Caused the Critical Spirit in this Synagogue Ruler?
1. He had the typical big head of the rulers of the synagogue.

2. A strict adherence to unbiblical rules that we have extrapolated from the Bible.

 

The Cures for a Critical Spirit
1. Admit you have a problem.

2. Confess your critical spirit to the Lord.

3. Ask those you’ve hurt to forgive you.

4. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a new spirit, a constructive spirit, not a critical spirit.

 

A BAKER’S DOZEN OF VERSES ABOUT A CRITICAL ATTITUDE

1. Exodus 2:13-14 “When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, ‘Why do you strike your companion?’ He answered, ‘Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill
   me as you killed the Egyptian?’ Then Moses was afraid, and thought, ‘Surely the thing is known.’”
2. Matthew 7:1-2 “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”
3. Mark 11:24-25 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
4. Luke 6:41 “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
5. John 7:24 “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
6. Romans 14:3-4 “Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”
7. Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
8. 1 Corinthians 4:3-5 “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”
9. Romans 14:10 “Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.”
10. James 4:11 “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.”
11. Colossians 2:16 “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.”
12. Romans 14:13 “Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.”
13. Luke 12:13-14 “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?’”