Ladies ~ 9.) Building, improving, and maintaining relationships and effective communication. What about the hard relationships … like people who don’t treat us well or are, in fact, our enemies? Life’s trials can be hard enough - but when you find yourself having to interact with mean-spirited people it sure does intensify things. We need the wisdom to decipher which issues we should address and which ones we need leave alone. We also need the wisdom and meekness to know how to answer so that we will respond instead of react. There are lots of things that could be said about this … but today we are going to focus primarily on ONE. This will sound simple but it is not - ~ Take time to pray and think before you open your mouth. ~ “The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things” (Pro. 15:28). “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention” (Pro. 15:18). Usually conflict stirs our emotions … quite immediately. It is best to wait until our emotions have calmed down before we answer. Once the ‘smoke has cleared’ it is easier to view the scenery with accuracy. God has called us to apply His love supernaturally to those who inflict pain upon us. This is easier said than done. Why? Because our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak. (And to be honest… sometimes our spirit isn’t even willing.) It is way too easy and natural for us to succumb to our lusts and humanistic mindset. In other words…it is way too easy to do what we feel instead of what we know is wisest. Which is exactly why we are commanded “not to be conformed to this world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Rom. 12:2). We need to be careful to walk in the Spirit when dealing with people that are not nice. It is best that we try not to focus so much on them and their evils but rather focus on what God is doing in our life and what He wants to produce in us. The natural inclinations of our evil hearts would be to retaliate, to seek vengeance, to protect ourselves, to revenge ourselves, to become bitter, to seethe, to punish, to separate from our offenders, to constantly remind people of the hurt they’ve caused, to rehearse evils over and over in our memories, to hold a grudge, to revile, to hate, to withhold forgiveness, to become angry, and at best to treat the ones who hurt us with a pious distant coolness. We are good at justifying all of these sinful attitudes because we seriously have been wronged and sinned against at times. After all someone really did hurt us! Notice that I said that those are natural inclinations? Remember though… we aren’t our own. We Christians aren’t in the bondage of our flesh to obey its lusts and natural tendencies that we are sinfully prone to, any more (1Cor. 6:19; Rom. 6:12). We have been set at liberty to live a supernatural life that is yielded to the Holy Spirit. So instead of facing the trials of life as we view them, we are to yield our response to those trials to Spirit’s power in us, more commonly called ‘walking in the Spirit.’ Walking in the Spirit simply means that we humbly yield ourselves to His leading and not lean on our own understanding. “Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin” (Pro. 13:3). “To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!” (Pro. 15:23). “The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips” (Pro. 16:23). “Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble” (Pro. 21:23). We are all going to be wronged over and over and over in this life. Being wronged hurts. We need answers. We in fact desperately need answers. Not merely answers, not just any answers…but most importantly God’s answers. If we continue to live focused on ourselves, our trials, or even merely solutions to our trials; we are doomed to fail. All the while wasting precious time, opportunity and would-be relationships. We really need to start becoming bible wise. We need to hoe out of our minds things that oppose personal holiness and that cater to our flesh rather than giving God the glory He so deserves. Homework - ~ Take time to pray and think before you open your mouth. Humbly yield your life – moment by moment – to the Holy Spirit. ~
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 08:45:24 +0000
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