Let Joy abound!

God has had us on a learning curve of Choosing Joy! We can be found saying, "chose joy" to our kids in countless situations. Man, if you can learn this lesson it sums up so much of life. This summer we were able to here Steve Backland speak in Florida at our US Church plant conference. While there we bought several of his books, one of which is on JOY! We were blessed to have Steve and his wife Wendy and some of their team come and speak and bless us last months. If you are looking for something to spice up your time with God and maybe challenge you - I totally recommend any of their books. Here is a devotion from the JOY book that has spoken to me greatly. Maybe you already have it all figured out. But if not let these words challenge and spur you on to not have a critical spirit.

Enemy of Joy - A critical spirit:

An obsessive attitude of disapproval and finding fault is called a "critical spirit." Those with this attitude regularly see negatives, regularly complain and are usually upset with something or someone. Their identity is rooted in what they are against rather than what they are for. This spirit greatly hinders joy.

A critical spirit is fueled by insecurity, competition, perfectionism, and self-criticism. Insecurity causes us to focus on the faults of others so that we don't have to fully face our own issues. (We tend to judge ourselves by our motives and others by their actions.) Competitioncreates an "us against them" mentality. (The successes of others are seen as a threat to our own future.) Perfectionism makes us "not fun to be with" because we give little encouragement for improvements or positive steps made by others. The biggie, though, is self-criticism. This greatly feeds the critical spirit. Let's explore this one further.

When Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39), He was giving us more than a command. He was sharing this principle of life: how we feel about ourselves, will strongly affect how we feel about others. If we love ourselves, will love others. If we hate ourselves, we will have a tendency to hate others. If we accept ourselves, we will accept others. If we are critical of ourselves, we will often have a critical spirit concerning others.

Letting go of the critical spirit can be scary. There is a fear that doing this will actually increase negative behavior in others. (It is believed that keeping negative will help others "tow the line.") The use of criticism as a motivational tool may bring some short-term positive results, but it will produce long-term relationship strain (as well as damage the "father concept" in people's lives.)

When we get a life-altering revelation of how much we are loved and forgiven, then we are on the road to eliminating the critical spirit. When we see how much mercy we have been given, then we will give mercy. Of course, this does mean that we are ignoring problems that need to be addressed; but we will do so from a spirit of love and wholeness, and not from a "critical spirit."

Declaration: I have great joy because I am loved and forgiven by God. I see the good in others. The critical spirit is far from me.

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