Have you ever had a speck of dust in your eye when the wind blows?  Sometimes it hurts or at the very least its annoying.  Your eye begins to water and turns red. Then your vision begins to blur.  Well, sometimes our heart gets a speck of sin in it.  Sometimes from a hurt or an annoying situation. Sometimes we realize we have been jealous, or envious, angry, or perhaps unkind to someone.   We may cry over the embarrassment and may even turn red (blush) but if we don’t take the appropriate action that’s needed we will begin to have blurred vision of everything in our lives.  So what do we do?  How do we get and keep these “specks” out of our lives.  All the problems above have one thing in common, judgment.

Matthew 7:1-4  “Judge not that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged: and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘let me remove the speck from your eye’: and look, a plank is in your own eye?”

A root is defined as, “the underground part of a seed plant , the essential core.  A plank is a heavy thick board, to set or lay down forcibly.  A speck is a small spot or blemish, a small particle, a flaw. Depending on how long the sin is allowed determines whether it is a speck, plank or root.

Don’t be quick to think you and I don’t judge, because we do.  We judge whether we like the food before us, we judge whether we like the clothes someone is wearing.  We even judge the actions and words of each other.

Before we make it a habit to judge others, let us be quick to judge ourselves.  When God shows us something that we need to correct, let’s be quick to repent and pull up the seed and root of criticism.  1 John 1:9 tells us, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. It is only when we confess our sins that we can be free from them.

It is only when we have mercy on others that we can help them be free from their sins.  We learn from 1 Peter 4:8 that we are to love one another for love will cover a multitude of sins.  This doesn’t mean we don’t confront sin, it means that love has to be the motivation behind any confrontation.  Love wants to see others free from the power of sin and it must be the love of God that motivates.

Judgment without mercy brings condemnation and rebellion.  

Judgment with mercy brings conviction and repentance.

Repentance of sin brings the mercy of God and releases us to receive His blessings that otherwise are blocked by sin.  We receive the freedom from those sins of darkness and receive the freedom that is in the Light of Jesus. The power of Christ is in us to grow us up into His likeness.  Let’s apply our faith to His Word and bring those things in Christ into our lives and bring glory to Him.

When we spend time with God in prayer and reading the Bible asking Him to search our hearts and to cleanse us from anything that is not pleasing to Him, He will tell us of those things.  You and I need to remember that when He does reveal these things to us that it is for our benefit.  It is for us to humble ourselves and repent.  The problem is that sometimes when He tells us of something and we don’t see the manifestation of it in our lives we think, “I must have heard wrong”; but God is looking at our heart and sees the root that hasn’t even produced any fruit yet.  Remember the tree that Jesus cursed because it had no fruit on it?  Well, there was potential for fruit in the roots.   (Mark 11:12-14, 20).   As a result of Jesus’ words the tree died at the root first so now the potential of fruit died too, never to manifest.  God wants to rid us of sin-roots before they manifest in our lives, so be quick to repent; not out of condemnation or fear, but out of conviction and love.

Prayer is a power that brings us close to God.  Confessing our sins and receiving God’s forgiveness is the power that washes away the power of sin.  Confessing the Word of God is the power that brings His Promises into our lives.