JUDGMENT
26th Nov 2025
Some years ago, our sister and brother-in-law came from New Zealand to attend a Youth with a Mission Leadership School. During this time, they came to visit us and told us about the teaching they were receiving and the heart-searching and changes taking place in their lives.
One key scripture was from Hebrews 12:15, which says, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” They had been instructed to pull out and destroy these bitter roots. They mainly referred to the people they were judging.
After they left, I spent time with Jesus asking Him to expose any such ‘root’ in my heart, and He began to speak to me about several roots needing to be dealt with! The Holy Spirit spoke to me with this statement, “If you want more love, you must eradicate judgment.”
He then gave me practical, clear instructions on how to approach this. I was told to take the printed phone list of the community we were part of and to carefully, prayerfully work through each name, confessing to Jesus any judgmental attitudes, receiving His forgiveness and cleansing, and then releasing each individual while praying blessing and favour upon each one.
I set aside time to do this and found myself horrified and fearful as I saw the extent of my judgments, largely unspoken but colouring my view of nearly everyone on the list. I repented with many tears as I saw how widespread this bitter root judgment was. In the following days and weeks, I was constantly acknowledging my sinful heart and asking for cleansing for myself and releasing many from judgmental assessments I had made.
The result was a new love, a new freedom to see through the eyes of Jesus, a renewed sensitivity and desire to live free from judgment and full of love. Romans 14:4 says, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”
This became a pivotal verse for me, leading me to turn from judgment to prayer and blessing, and love began to grow.
by Joyce Sibthorpe
