Praise God we are in the Easter season. Lent is a time of daily dying to our will.  This Lent God purified me in many areas, but the net result is that I’m feeling more joy and peace.  I ran across this excerpt that I wrote years ago: 

I found myself judging those who were hurting me.  I did not realize that by my judging them for judging me, I was hooking with them, and therefore getting caught and losing my peace.  My judgment kept me locked into them. Betty suggested I fast from negative judgments.  She said it would help set me free from my critics. Her words are in red below:

Are you being called to a deeper letting go and letting God act in your life?  It can be a transforming time as we begin to experience His heart for others.  At times, we feel the rising or ‘Mountain top experience’ and at other times we feel as though we are dying as we move to another position of thinking, feeling, acting, or being.  Our hands and heart must be emptied in order to be filled.  Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light.’ (John 14:6).  In order to follow Him completely, we need to die to all that is not of Him.  We need to let go of our resistances or walls.  For example, God is like this…or He will do this.

In the past, the reason other people’s criticism could get to me is that I had an open door, since I judged myself.  All I needed was another person judging me, and I would do a number on myself.  I still slip up from time to time, but thankfully, God is healing me more and more, so I’m better able to separate out the other person’s stuff from my own.

I came that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)