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What causes us to have a lifestyle of pointing fingers at others in judgment and criticism? What causes a person to analyze every move, word and deed others make and then make judgments in their thinking on whether or not it was said or done right, for the right reason and always questioning their motives? Are you or have you ever been that kind of person? If so, what do you think made you that way? Can you change the way you are, or were you able to change the way you were and are now living in victory in that area?

Now I am not talking about the average person who occasionally has a problem with thinking negative of others. I am talking about someone with a lifestyle of this way of thinking and behaving. There are people out there like this, I know because I used to be one, and could be again today if I do not keep a check on certain areas of my life.

I want to share something with you that will help you tremendously. You have to understand, I hated this part about myself, and still today, I hate it when I let that 'thing" start ruling my life. The key is to finding out what starts it and changing that and then keeping a check on that area of my life for sudden reoccurrences or patterns of that type of thinking.

Have you ever heard the saying, when you are pointing one finger at another, there are three pointing back at you? Whose fingers are pointing back? Your own! Are you starting to see a pattern yet? Let me ask you this, how judgmental and critical are you towards yourself? Your failures? I would be willing to bet, [if I was a betting person, which I am not!] that you are VERY self-critical. And probably have a hard time forgiving yourself when you sin, hurt someone, or don't measure up to the way you or others think you should.

I will not go into detail on how a person gets this way, but I will share with you the steps to getting free of this. Regardless of how we got this way, it always starts with our thinking. How we think about ourselves determines how we treat ourselves. How we think and treat ourselves will almost always run identical with how we think and treat others. The word of God says, As a man thinks in his heart, SO IS HE….What you believe about yourself is how you are going to treat yourself. You are not going to treat others any better than you treat yourself, because you can't see past your own faults and shortcomings to see the good in any one else. And even if you see good, you are automatically judging their motives. Because you judge yourself so harshly all the time, you will judge others the same way. So what I am saying is this; one of the keys to changing the way you think and treat others is to start by changing how you think about yourself.

You have to learn to love yourself with the love of Christ. This is one of the hardest things I have ever had to learn and one of the easiest for me to still let slip today. You have to start right here. Now, while you are working on changing this area, you will automatically start working on how you think of others. Example; When I start speaking to myself, [Lisa, In the Name of Jesus, you forgive yourself. Jesus for gave you, He said His blood was enough and He said that we are to hold nothing against others and to forgive everyone, THAT INCLUDES MYSELF! So I choose to forgive myself, I choose to love myself, just the way I am, that is the way God loves me, so that is the way I choose to love me. No conditions, no-I have to be good enough, no-I have to do things right, I love me just the way I am, right now, faults and all.] From this point, I am starting to look for the good things about myself. I automatically start to transfer this thinking to the way I interact with others. Over and over again I have to catch myself, stop right then, change the self-condemning thoughts, harsh self-judgment, and make a conscious effort to love me just the way I am. And again, I find myself looking at others with a more loving, forgiving, softer, compassionate sight. It all stems from the word telling us to love one another as Christ loved us. How did He love us? With a self-less love, not holding our trespasses against us, nailing them,(faults, failures, sin, meanness etc…) to the cross, shedding His precious blood(because He thought we were worth the price He paid)…..I could go on, but I think you are getting the picture. Jesus tells us to love ourselves and one another the same way He loved us. When you start doing this, 1towards yourself and at the same time towards others, you will start to see a heart melt-down in yourself and within a couple of months you won't even know yourself anymore. As a matter of fact you will start to get a little worried because you will think you aren't being hard enough on yourself!!

You will be able to quit pulling back bloodied fingers from where you have pointed hard, harsh fingers at yourself and others and you'll let the healing power of God take over and make your fingers whole again!

Because, Love NEVER fails! God's love in me NEVER fails! Because, as a man thinks in his heart…so is he. There are many, many, many more scriptures to back up what I have given you today. When you come across them, write them down. Remind yourself daily and email them to me, I would love to hear testimonies of how God has turned your way of thinking about yourself around and in the process changed your world!! Be Blessed! Lisa

"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

Things that go bump in the night