Every once in a while I find myself struggling with a critical spirit. I look at some person; observe the way they do things and my mind begins to tell me what is wrong with them. If I don't quickly arrest those thoughts, I will make some judgements about them and my spirit will immediately close-up to them. I may then walk away feeling very righteous but what has happened in that moment is that I have let pride rule over my soul and I have grieved my heavenly Father.
What I usually do when I find myself becoming critical is to turn my focus from that person back to me. I look back at myself 5 or 10 years ago. Then I had made some foolish mistakes. I have done some regrettable things. But I believe God, in His grace, had His hands upon me even then; otherwise I will not be who I am today. God was not critical of me then. Neither is He critical of me now. Then why do I want to do this to others?
God is so big and so secure He uses people despite their flaws. Many Christians will have "problems" with the many Christian giants of the past. Martin Luther liked beer, a lot; John Wesley was pretty disappointing as a husband; George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards had some annoying amillenial and hyper-Calvinist tendencies; Charles Spurgeon smoked a cigar; D. Martyn Lloyd Jones baptized babies. But these were people whom God used mightily. It didn't seem like God dismissed them for their flaws. Of course, it doesn't mean their weaknesses can be excused or mean that we shouldn't be clear about why we see things differently, but still, we cannot deny God's hand on them.
Because of our critical spirit, I am afraid many Christians today wouldn't recognize the power of God if they saw it. It's sad. My son told me that in the world of photography there is such a thing called "a small dot syndrome." Like when you look at a newspaper photograph, you will notice that it's made up of many dots of ink. Now if you focus on only one of those dots, you will miss the "big picture."
A critical spirit tends to focus on little details of errors that God is still in the process of refining. It's important to pay attention to those little errors but not at the expense of the big picture. Then we miss God!
