Day 298: Act on the Word

James 1:22-25

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Growing up my mom could always tell when we weren’t listening to her. It was less about how we reacted to what she was saying and more about how we acted based on what she was saying. When we acted in a way that we were not supposed to or did something and it went wrong she would always say it was because we weren’t listening, and I’d say, about 100% of the time she was right. She would say, “Everything I’m saying to you, goes in one ear and out the other.” Meaning, we acted like we never heard a word she said.

I share this because I believe that it is important for us as Christians to do more than just hear the word. We must act on it, we must do what it says. Living like Christ is more than just reading the bible, it’s living it out. We are walking, breathing bibles. How can we call ourselves Christians if we are not living by the word of God. We cannot have the word go in one ear and out the other, we must be doers of the word. We read the bible, but that’s not enough. Atheists read the bible. We must allow the word of God to take root in us, we must allow it to influence the way we live. Hearing the word of God is great, but how are we going to put it into action. The bible isn’t just some fun book to read, although it can be (read the old testament), it is a life instruction manual. It tells us how to live, and how to love. The word of God is everything we need to know how to live.

Too often we act as if reading the bible is enough. We read every morning, we pray and we’re good, we’ve spent our time with God for the day. It is so much more than that. We take the word of God with us wherever we go because it is in us. It has take root and manifested within us. We do not sit Jesus on a shelf once we are done with Him that’s not how it works. God is with us in every moment of our lives. He’s right there. We cannot read the word of God and not allow it to take root in us and change the way we live. We cannot forget the word of God as if it has no impact on us. We must be a doer who acts not a hearer who forgets.

All this to say, the word of God is meant to be lived. It is meant to influence the way we live. We cannot be just hearers of the word, we must be doers as well.

Reflection

1. Are you a hearer and a doer of the word
2. Have you had a moment in your life when you thought that reading the bible and hearing the word was enough?
3. At what point did you decide to be a doer of the word?

Prayer Time

Allow you answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. Take the time to search yourself and submit your heart to the Lord. Take the time to talk to God about allowing His word to influence the way you live.

If you’ve never made the decision to live for Christ, or you want to rededicate your life. If you want to be brought into this magnificent promise of eternity, now is the time to make that decision. If that’s you if you want to make that decision, pray this prayer with me,

“Jesus I declare that you are my Lord and Saviour who died for my sins and was raised three days later. I repent of my sins and I give my life to you. I believe in my heart that you are the true living God. I pray that you shine your  light on me and bring me out of the darkness and into your light. I love you Lord. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, Amen.”

If you made the choice to follow Christ, rededicate, or to submit your life to Him fully, Go to Romans 10:9-10

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

I love you so much. If you made the decision to follow Christ today, congratulations, this is the best decision you will ever make. Do not be afraid to reach out and get plugged into a church. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 299!

Day 255: The Life You Are Called to Love

1 Corinthians 7:17-19

Each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you, and remain as you were when God first called you. This is my rule for all the churches. For instance, a man who was circumcised before he became a believer should not try to reverse it. And the man who was uncircumcised when he became a believer should not be circumcised now. For it makes no difference whether or not a man has been circumcised. The important thing is to keep God’s commandments.

Today I want to talk about living the life God has called us to live in a different way than usual. As the body of Christ we are constantly being told that we are one body, one spirit, while that remains true I would like to point out the part of the scripture that says different parts make up one body. We are human, and we all have our earthly heroes, the people we look up to the most or who we aspire to be like. However, God is writing a story for each of us. Each of our stories are uniquely different because that’s how He wrote it. No one story is the same. What I’m getting at here is that we are called to live the life God has chosen for us, not for anyone else. We are called to live our story.

Live the life God has called you to live.  Not the life he has for anyone else or the life that anyone else is trying to make you live. Too often we compare ourselves with one another and try to live to lives we see others live. We see the lifestyle people live, or the career they have and wish we could be just like them. Or we try to mould our lives to look like there’s. There’s a lot of pressure on our generation to have it all together, to have this perfect lifestyle. But the truth is, God is still working on us, and we’re going to get there one day, the time just hasn’t come yet.  However, this idea of luxury and riches, brought strongly through social media is raising a generation of posers, who are not living the life they are called to live. But they are living the life, they are pressured into or expected to live. Whether it be family, friends, or fans. The only person’s expectations you are required to meet, the only person you are to please with your life is God. No one else.

One thing I have come to realize very recently; I am very inspired  by people’s stories or careers their journey that got them where they are, and want my outcome to be the same. However, I have come to the realization that their story is not my story. Even if God wrote theirs similar to mine it's very different. God has something different in store for me than He does for someone else. As an actress the question I get asked a lot is “who do you want to be like?”, while I can name a list of people who I admire, I had to realize that God has something different for me and my career than He did for them. Now I am still very inspired by these people but I will not aspire to be them. We cannot live someone else's life and if we try it's not called it called imitating. More like plagiarizing life. No story is exactly the same. Live the story God is writing for you. I promise it's amazing

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There is a common misconception that being a Christian strips is of who we are. For some reason people think that once you give your life to Christ you fall into this lifestyle like the rest. Where we all think alike, act alike, and don't have individuality. That's not the body of Christ, that's a cult. God made us who we are for a reason. He's not going to strip us of that. He will strip away the things that are not like Him to enhance who we are. He will strip away sin, pain, hurt, false identity. We are not giving up who we are; we are giving up who we thought we were. We are giving up our pride. We are giving up our sinful nature, in exchange for a lifestyle that is eternal. We are exchanging temporary for eternity.

All this to say, live your life. Don’t try to live anyone else’s life because God is writing your story and it is unique to who you are and who He made you to be. Don’t try to take over someone else’s story and pass it off as your own. It won’t work. Don’t feel like to are require to give in to the pressure or unreal expectations people put on you. It’s your life, follow Christ.

Reflection

1. Are you living your story or someone else’s
2. Have you tried to strip away who you are because you are a follower of Christ
3. Live your story.

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about living the life He has called you to live, ask God to help you with your identity. I pray that you be found in Christ and that you realize and understand just who you are.

I love you, so much and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for day 256!

Day 229: Pass No Judgement

Romans 14:1-6

Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. For instance, one person believes it’s alright to eat anything. But another believer with a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables. Those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don’t. And those who don’t eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them. Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall. And with the Lord’s help, they will stand and receive his approval. In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God.

(Today’s devo is the first of three parts. For the next three days we will explore subjects that tie into one another or build on one another. It’s kind of like a mini series.)

The biggest point I want to make today is, do not pass judgement on someone because they live differently than you. Now I’ve seen this quote a multitude of times, however the word ‘live’ is replaced by the word, ‘sin’. But that’s not what I’m talking about today. I want to discuss how we as Christians are so quick to turn our noses up and look down on someone because they live differently than us. We tend to doubt someone’s Christianity because they aren’t living their life, or doing the things we think a Christian should do. We often project our lifestyles onto other people because we think our way is the only way. Maybe they’re more traditional in their faith and maybe they’re more contemporary or modern. Maybe they believe the Sabbath day is on a Saturday instead of a Sunday. Maybe they don’t eat certain things, or participate in certain activities because of their faith. Maybe you do all of these these because of your faith. What I’m getting at here is, it’s not a matter of how, and where, and when. But it’s more a matter of the heart. If we love God with every ounce of our being, and we know in our heart that He is God, and if we have confessed it with our mouths than we are saved. . If we truly live our lives dedicated to Him, then at the end of the day that’s all that matters.

I think sometimes we can get this “holier than thou” attitude, that somehow gives us to right to act superior to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We think that because we don’t live the exact same lifestyle then one of us must be doing it wrong. That is not the case at all, God gave us a choice and even in the will of God, we get to choose the type of lifestyle we want to lead. It’s not a matter of sin or righteousness, it’s just a choice.  Not all of us are going to make the same choices, but who are we to judge someone else because they decide that our life and our lifestyle isn’t for them.

Our generation can relate to this message a lot as millennials make up most of today’s contemporary churches. These churches get quite a bit of slack from the older generations and the more traditional churches. It’s a new type of church, where you don’t have to dress up, or have a traditional choir, there’s not really a pulpit for the clergy to sit on. It’s very unconventional. Different than what many of us grew up with.  However, it works, we may look different, or sound different, but the message is the same. Our worship time may look like a Hillsong United concert with the lights and ripped skinny jeans, but we are still singing about the goodness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our hearts are still near the cross. We profess our love for God. Traditional churches are the complete opposite. But the beautiful thing about it all, no matter what denomination, no matter where it is, how you look, there’s one thing we all have in common, the Good News. Every Christian church is preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ.

I believe Romans 4:17-19 wraps this message up perfectly. For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.

All this to say, for lack of better words, don’t be petty. Don’t pass judgement on someone and doubt their devotion to Christ because their life does not look exactly like yours. We as the body of Christ should be lifting each other up, praying for one another every chance we get. That way, there’s no time or room to be petty and judgemental.  

Reflection

1. Have you ever passed judgement on someone because you felt they should be living a certain way as a Christian?
2. Has someone ever done it to you?
3. In both situations, how did it make you feel? Be honest.

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above question guide your prayer today. Ask God to search your heart and take any judgement towards His people out. Have an honest and intimate conversation with Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for day 230!

Day 226: Unpacking Romans 12- Recap!

This week we started a new series, 'Unpacking Romans Twelve'. We are not done with the series just yet, we will continue with it into next week. However we will still do our weekly recap. So, here it goes.

Day 219: Renew Your Mind 

We started the week off with Romans 12:2, speaking about renewing our mind and changing our mindset. We talked about how when we become Christians, the way we think and the way we view the world and everything in it also changes. We talked about being likeminded with Christ. Other scriptures we focused on today were, Isaiah 55:7-9 and Matthew 22:37.

"If our mind is not renewed our life cannot be renewed. If we are still moving and thinking the same way we did when we were in the world, how are we ever going to grow in Christ. A worldly mindset does not work in a Christian body."

Day 220: One Body, Different Functions

Today we focused on Romans 12:3-8. We talked about how we are all one in Christ, yet we are all different. We talked about how we use our differences to come together to elevate the body of Christ. We also touched on how we are all equal and we are not to look down on anyone.

"We are one in Christ and nothing should divide us. We are meant to function together as one body. Yes, we are different, but we are also one in the same."

Day 221: A True Christian

Today we focused on Romans 12:9-10, we talked about the makings of a True Christian. We talked about how we are too often caught up in being a "good christian" that the truth behind our christianity fades becomes it becomes more of an image to keep up, instead of a lifestyle. We talked about being genuine and not showing fake love to people in order for us to look good as a Christian.

" A lot of times, our motives have a lot to do with how we act and ultimately how we treat each other. We have to ask ourselves why we do things sometimes, what our motives are. Are we doing something for someone because we really love them or because it will make us look or feel good?"

Day 222: Going after God

Today we focused on Romans 12:11-12, we talked about chasing after God. One of the big themes we discussed today, is knowing the difference between wanting God and needing God. We talked about how we must want God more than anything else. We discussed really having a passion for God. Other scriptures we referred to was, Jeremiah 29:13.

"One of the things I’ve learned within my almost twenty-five years of living is, need gives up drive, want puts passion behind that drive."

Day 223: Hospitality

Today we focused on Romans 12:13, and you guessed it, we talked about hospitality. We talked about how as Christians we should make all people feel welcomed and loved. We talked about how also the church should be more hospitable when it comes to welcoming strangers, or sinners.

"We must learn to welcome people with open arms and make them feel like they are loved, like they are a part of this beautiful community God has created. We never know what people are going through and one hospitable act from us could literally change the course of someone’s life."

Day 224: Bless Those Who Curse You

Today we focused on Romans 12:14, and we talked about soft answers. We talked about praying for the people who prey on us. We also talked about how those very people need our love the most and how they are probably trying to cover up their own hurt. Another scripture we focused on today was Proverbs 15:1.

" So many times I think that when we are called to turn the other cheek, or bless those who curse us, it is just as much for them as it is for us. While our faith might be being tested someone is being healed. It’s much deeper than just getting the last laugh or proving that you are mature."

I love you and I hope you have, had, or are currently having an amazing and beautiful day. We will continue this series tomorrow, be sure to come back then for Day 227. I love you!

Day 213: Timeless Love

We’re going to start this week off talking about love. Yes I mean the love of God but also, I’m talking about romance. I mean we can’t truly love someone without first knowing the love of God and falling in love with Him.

Jeremiah 31:3

"I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With that unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

God’s love is everlasting, it stands the test of time, it stands through everything. There was never a time where God did not love us. His love is unconditional. He loves us throughout all of our ups and downs, everything. God’s love for us is so great that nothing we do can make Him love us less. This is the type of love that we should seek in every area of our life. No one will be able to love us in the exact way that God loves us, but the type of love He shows to us is how we should strive to love others and be loved by others.

We’ve talked about loving our neighbor and we’ve talked about loving our friends, we’ve even hinted on relationships. However we’ve never dived into the idea of falling in love and how God’s love for us influences the way we love, in a romantic way. Sounds crazy right, but God teaches us how to love in every area of our lives.

Genesis 29:20

So Jacob worked seven years to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days.

One of the earliest instances of true love I can remember in the bible is when Jacob worked seven years in order to marry Rachel. Now for those of you who know the story you know Jacob, the trickster was tricked by his uncle Laban into marrying Leah. Leah was Rachel’s older sister. So he worked seven more years to get the woman of His dreams. Yeah I know, it sounds crazy, but that’s how it happened. A lot went down in the old testament, if you think reality tv is something read the old testament of the bible. That’s something! However back to what we were talking about. Jacob worked fourteen years in order to marry the woman of his dreams. When he saw her, he was like ‘I like that girl and I’m going to marry her.’ I’m sure he didn’t think that He would have to work fourteen years to marry her, but he loved her so much the time flew by. He was so in love that the time he has to work to get her was nothing to Him. I mean what was seven or fourteen years compared to a lifetime? Many of us can’t imagine waiting that long to marry someone. We can’t imagine waiting that long for anything, but when love is involved it changes everything. Love can change things, and if it’s the right type of love, it will always change for the better. I know some of us are like, ‘love won’t change me’ and saying how you’ll never do things for love. Yeah okay, fall in love and see how that changes. I’m pretty sure Jacob thought he wouldn’t have to work fourteen years for love, but it had him in those fields everyday and the time felt like the speed of light.  

Now I’m not sure how many of you have been in love. I’m assuming quite a few of you have been in love this is the age where many of us are either falling in love, have been in love, or are currently in love. I’ve been in love before and first let me start by saying that I hope your first love ended much better than mine. However when you’re really in love with someone, time flies by. It’s timeless, you believe at least for the time being that you will love this person forever. It’s like Jacob, his love for Rachel was so strong that seven years felt like a few days.

When it comes to love I believe that there is both a healthy way to love and an unhealthy way to love. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard the term blinded by love, but it’s not really a good thing. This is the type of love that is run by infatuation. The times when we are so into a person that we are blinded by all the red flags that God is flashing in our face. This is the type of love that leads to heartbreak. There’s a few things that we must learn about love as we grow.

We learn how to love from the love we have been given. For those of us who are Christian we have come to the knowledge that God’s love is unconditional and full of grace. We learn how to love properly because we serve a living God and He is love. His very essence is love. Everything about Him screams love. His love is unconditional. He sees our sin and sees our mistakes, yet He still chooses to love us. Seeing that this is the way God loves us, this is how we must love our others. Which leads me to my next point.

We must love ourselves before we can love anyone else. My mom always told us growing, “No one will respect you, if you don’t respect yourself.” I say that to say, sometimes we go looking for love and validation is someone and we end up ruining a great thing because we don’t love ourselves, and therefore we cannot grasp the idea of someone else loving us. Meaning we can sometimes stand in the way of being loved. The bible tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves but if we do not love ourselves how are we going to love someone else. Especially in a relationship.

Last but most definitely not least, love is work. If we want it to work  we have to work for it. Jacob worked seven years for the love of His life, and it flew by. We have to be willing to work for love. It won’t always be peaches and romance, sometimes it will be hard.  It’s those moments we have to work through. Now some relationships are only meant for a season, but when God sends the one trust me you will know it. When God sends the person you are meant to spend the rest of your life with, even then, especially then, we have to work for it. We choose to love that person every day. We continue to fall in love.

However, just because we’re falling in love with someone doesn’t mean we stop falling in love with God. God must always come first, always. Nothing and no one should ever come before Him. We must fall in love with Him more and more everyday. It is the only way we will be able to survive and live.

Reflection

1. Are you in love?
2. Are you in love with God?
3. Do you love yourself?

Prayer Time

Allow your overall response to today's discussion and the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about love, being loved, and falling in love.

I know you’ve read this word a million times, but I love  and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 214!

Day 162: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

Psalms 139:13-14

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Something we don’t hear enough is, “you’re beautiful” or “You’re handsome”. I think as the church we tend to neglect the idea of self-esteem when it comes to beauty. We tend to beat around the bush when it comes to caring about our physical appearance. We as Christian are very focused on what’s on the inside, we don’t really focus on physical appearance. It’s more about what our heart looks like. While that is great and I do not want to discredit that in any way, I believe that it is important for people to be complimented. I feel that it is important for us as Christians to have confidence. I believe that we should be able to see ourselves as beautiful and not be accused of arrogance or cockiness.

God formed the innermost parts of us but He also formed the outermost parts of us. We were created by the greatest artist there is, was, and will be. We are the greatest work of His hands, made in His image. If that’s not beautiful I don’t know what is. I talk about this because I truly believe that we are beautiful people and we must believe that. It’s something that many people especially people in our generation suffer with. You’re beautiful, don’t let anyone tell you it’s just on the inside.

One of my favorite movies and musicals is The Color Purple. It’s a beautiful story, and a piece of the plot is a woman finding her own beauty and learning to own that. There is a point in the story where she can’t even look in the mirror for more than two seconds. She doesn’t see herself as beautiful because she has been told over and over that she was ugly. She has been beaten down all her life and eventually, she starts to believe it. I tell this story because there are too many people especially within the body of Christ, as I stated above, walking around with low self-esteem. There are too many people out there who don’t believe that they are beautiful. I’m talking about the men too, especially men, they get overlooked too often. We all need to hear it at one point or another. It’s one thing to think but ti believes it is different. I grew up being bullied really bad, I was called ugly every day for years and I heard that word so much that I eventually started to believe it. This is why hearing it is important.

I feel like a lot of people are opposed to Christians being attractive, especially if they’re pastors. Like, people are really shocked when they see a pastor who is attractive. It’s interesting like it’s almost a sin in the world for a Christ follower to be hot. Our beauty isn’t just on the inside, we are human just like the next person, and there is nothing wrong with being told you’re beautiful, feeling beautiful, or wanting to be told you’re beautiful.

Back to the story of the color purple. In the musical at one point the actress playing the lead sings a song, and in the middle of that songs she looks out into the audience and says, “I’m beautiful”, not once but twice. The actress Cynthia Erivo who plays the role talks about this moment in the play. She discusses how we need to hear this statement more often and how we do not hear it enough. I believe that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and we have to believe that to be true in every part of our lives.

All this to say, have confidence, know that you are beautiful. Start to see yourself as more than just a beautiful person on the inside but know that God has made you and there you are the most beautiful thing ever. You’re beautiful on the inside but you’re also beautiful on the outside. Believe that.

Reflection

Take the time today to look in the mirror and say, I’m “beautiful” or ‘I’m handsome”, gorgeous, pretty, stunning, cute, whatever word you choose. Then compliment someone, make someone feel good about themselves today and every day following.

Prayer Time

Take the time to pray that God boosts the confidence of His people. Have a conversation with Him about what we talked about today.

I love you, I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 163!

Day 160: How Do You Respond?

I must admit that our generation is very hot-headed. We have no problem defending ourselves, and others, we also don’t mind speaking up when we don’t like something. This is both a blessing and a curse, we won’t let our voice be silenced but sometimes the best way to fight back is through silence. Our response and reaction to things is very important. We must learn self-control and how to turn the other cheek when we want to respond out of anger or animosity, or even spite.

Matthew  5:38-40

“You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too.

Before moving forward allow me to break the above scripture down. If you’re like me you’ve always had a bit of confusion about this scripture, and if I’m being honest, a hard time obeying it. Am I really supposed to let someone slap me?” “So if someone slaps me once, I have to turn my cheek and let them do it again? Seriously?” These are the questions I asked, when trying to understand this scripture. I wasn’t looking at it from a spiritual or metaphorical standpoint, I was look at it from a natural standpoint. All I knew is, if someone slapped me they had better been prepared to get slapped back. But as I began to read more and get an understanding of the scripture I realized, that same attitude is what the scripture is speaking against. We don’t always have to do to people what they do to us. We don’t always have to get revenge on someone. The next paragraph is a bit lengthy but bare with me, I need you to understand this. Here’s an explanation of the scripture from Watchtower online library, The Bible’s Viewpoint,

“It is noteworthy that in harmony with God’s Law, the “eye for eye” retribution mentioned in those scriptures was properly administered only after an offender had stood trial before the priests and judges who weighed the circumstances and the degree of deliberateness of the offense.—Deuteronomy 19:15-21.

In time the Jews distorted the application of this law. A 19th-century commentary on the Bible by Adam Clarke states: “It seems that the Jews had made this law [eye for eye, tooth for tooth] a ground for authorising private resentments, and all the excesses committed by a vindictive spirit. Revenge was often carried to the utmost extremity, and more evil returned than what had been received.” The Scriptures, however, did not authorize personal vendettas.

Jesus’ teaching in his Sermon on the Mount regarding ‘turning the other cheek’ reflects the true spirit of God’s Law to Israel. Jesus did not mean that if his followers are struck on one side of the face, they should stagger to their feet and offer the other side as a target. In Bible times, as is often true today, a slap was not intended to injure physically but was an insult intended to provoke a reaction, a confrontation.

Evidently, then, Jesus meant that if one person tried to goad another into a confrontation with a literal slap—or with stinging sarcasm—the person slapped should avoid retaliating. Instead, he should attempt to avoid what could become a vicious circle of rendering evil for evil.”

Ephesians 4:26

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

Proverbs 15:1

A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

1 Peter 2:23

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

Proverbs 16:32

Better a patient person than a warrior,

one with self-control than one who takes a city.

James 1:19

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

2 Timothy 1:17

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

Today we are going to talk about how to respond with respect and gratitude even when we get the opposite. As I stated above, our generation is a bit hot-headed, we do not like the idea of being disrespected and we are very blunt and upfront about our feelings. A few things we must learn to do is: walk away, be slow to anger, and bite that tongue.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, most people who really know me know that I am very sarcastic and I can have a very smart mouth. I’m not one to get angry really quickly, though i used to have a really short temper, but I do have a few triggers that will send me from 0-100 in a matter of seconds. I had to learn to kill my pride and shut my mouth. I had to learn that a soft answer really does turn away wrath. Even when my blood is boiling on the inside of me, I’ve learned to just smile and walk away. I cannot lie and tell you that it’s easy, I still find myself wanting to give a few people what I think they deserve sometimes, but at the end of the day, it’s not worth it.

I know I said previously that silence is sometimes the best answer, but it is so hard to stay silent. Especially in today’s society where it seems like the word respect in part of a lost language. It is so hard to think about Jesus and pray when person number one is in the corner testing you. It’s hard to turn the other cheek when you turned as many times as you could, and you’ve finally had enough. It’s hard to give a soft answer sometimes. It’s hard biting your tongue, some of us bite our tongues until they bleed. Sometimes you just have to respond, sometimes you just have to retaliate. Sometimes you just have to go off on that person. Sometimes you need to blow up and go crazy, and use the excuse that Jesus overturned tables in the temple. Sometimes you just have to do it. Sometimes it’s necessary to just, go there!...

...But do we really have to? That’s the question, is it necessary? Do we have to get out of character and do something that we will end up having to repent for later. Is the moment of pleasure really worth it? The scripture teaching us to be patient, it teaches us self-control, it teaches us to give a soft answer, don’t be so quick to get angry. We don’t always have to respond, we don’t always have to have an answer. Trust me I know it’s tempting, but we cannot fight fire with fire, we cannot fight hate with hate, but we can fight it love. We can fight it with a soft answer. We can choose to turn the other cheek and not retaliate. As christ followers we are called to live like Christ. Jesus received the ultimate amount of disrespect, he was spit on, slapped, punched, betrayed, by one of his own, mocked, pushed down, beat, accused, slandered, everything. Jesus took it, He chose to forgive them, even while they were hanging Him on a cross. He chose to die for the very people that killed Him. He always responded with love, even when He received hate. Jesus is a prime example of how we are to live and how we are to respond to others.

We must learn to control ourselves and our tongue. We do not always have to be right and we do not always have to have the last word. This does not mean that we let people walk all over us and not defend ourselves. What this means is, we have to learn to respond the way Jesus would. Sometimes our soft response can do more than a haughty one. Don’t get out of character or allow yourself to get angry to the point of sin. There is nothing wrong with being angry, it’s a human emotion we can’t avoid it but we can avoid acting on and holding on to it. I know it’s hard and we’re only human, but so was Jesus.  

Response/Prayer Time

Review the scriptures we went over today, think about how you respond to certain people and certain things, it is good or bad? Whatever the answer is, talk to God about it. Have a conversation with Him.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 161!