NIGHT DEVOTION

 

NIGHT PRAYER

And why beholdest thou the mote

that is in thy brother's eye, but

considerest not the beam that is in

thine own eye?0r how wilt thou

say to thy brother, Let me pull out

the mote out of thine eye; and,

behold, a beam is in thine own

eye?Thou hypocrite, first cast out

the beam out of thine own eye; and

then shalt thou see clearly to cast

out the mote out of thy brother's

eye.

From: Matthew 7:3-5

INSPIRATION

There is a story of a young girl who

watched her mother peer out of

her window at the neighbor's

laundry hanging on line.

"Humphh!" said the mother. "Look

at her laundry. Who would hang

such dirty laundry out there for

everyone to see? She should be

ashamed." The young girl looked

closer. She touched the window

with her finger and looked at the

dirt there. "Mama," she said, "it's

not her laundry that's dirty; it's

your window!" Too often we are so

quick to judge others on their

shortcomings. We focus on the

"specks" of their lives. Meanwhile,

our own windows are dirty. Jesus

clearly tells us that we must first

get rid of the "plank" in our own

eye before we try to criticize

others. He goes so far as to call us

hypocrites when we do this. This

very stern rebuke should be a

taken as a serious warning not to

judge others, but to instead judge

our own behaviors.

PRAYER

Lord, help me to examine myself.

Let me see the flaws in myself,

instead of focusing on the flaws in

others. Help me to clean up around

my own back door and focus on

pleasing you. Amen.