To judge, or not to judge?

I caught myself in a humbling situation this weekend. I was listening in on a conversation between my husband and a person that drives me CRAZY for many reasons. As this person continued to spew profanity after profanity from his mouth it made me more and more sick to even be around  him and I was content to sit and roll my eyes occasionally at my husband and simply observe what I perceive to be a minor train wreck in progress. At first meeting this person, I tried to see the humor in his immature ways and it was superficially amusing for awhile. Then I began to feel convicted that I should not be allowing the presence of this person in my home where my young children could pick up on some nasty habits, etc. When the evening was over I began fuming about the immorality of the situaton. " How dare this person even claim affiliation with the Christian faith when they are so obviously so off base, etc?" My husband then made the comment that perhaps the faith of this person, no matter how neglected I perceived it to be, could possibly be the only bit of stability he was holding on to. BOOM. Ok then. Where do we as Christians get off on judging others? I get it, we are human, and humans like to judge each other to make themselves feel better. But is this not the exact opposite of what we are called to do on this earth? I don't recall ever receiving power from God to be the all knowing judge of people's character, and thank goodness! I wouldn't want the responsibility of determining someone's eternal fate. I simply recall being commissioned to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15. That includes creatures that drive us crazy. And that doesn't necessarily mean to read scriptures at someone until you are blue in the face and hope something clicks in their heart. It means to present your faith to be THE effective truth in such a way that others will want it for themselves. And it means never giving up on someone  because of how they make you feel; God never gave up on me and there were plenty of times where I was giving the Christian faith a bad rep as well. Most of all, as Christians we have to stay humble, and keep people around us that will keep us humble. I am the worst about making a teeny spiritual step forward then becoming "Super Christian" and wanting to point out the faults and stagnancy of others. How horrible am I? What I am saying is that "we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23, but all of us who choose to accept His grace, no matter how many times we fall away and get distracted in our lives, will be saved. So get out there and quit pointing out the sins in others lives- they may already be aware of them. Just live your life the way you have been instructed to and God will do the rest.

I have been reading "My Upmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers, and today's reading went right along with my thought process so I wanted to share: " The Purpose of Prayer"

To say that "prayer changes things" is not as close to the truth as saying "Prayer changes me, and then I change things." God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person's inner nature.