A Prayer for Dealing With Difficult People..Mary Southerland

 A Prayer for Dealing With Difficult People

By Mary Southerland

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

When someone hurts one of our grandchildren, my first and wrong response is usually a very strong desire to flatten the person who did the hurting. Just keeping it real. I know that’s the wrong reaction, born out of anger and the wrath of a grandmother. Our grandson, Hudson, recently schooled me on the right way to respond when you’ve been hurt. 

One little boy in Hudson’s class at school is a bully. His favorite target seems to be Hudson, the sweetest kid on the planet. One day the little boy punched Hudson in the face … and a teacher saw the whole thing. She called Danna and Sam, asking them to come in for a conference. Both Danna and Sam were stunned when the teacher explained what had happened. 

Danna asked, “Is this the first time he’s done this, Hud?” Hudson responded, “No. He’s done it before.” Danna and Sam were shocked. “We had no idea!” they explained to the teacher. “Why haven’t you told anyone?” his father asked. Hudson’s response stunned everyone, “I can take it, Dad. He is really short. He’s the shortest kid in our class. Everyone but me makes fun of him. He doesn’t have any friends and I have a lot of friends. I knew if I told anyone he would get in trouble. So, I just take it because I’d like to be his friend. I think he really needs one.”

Needless to say, bullying is never right and certainly not to be tolerated in any situation. The adults were amazed by Hudson’s response but explained that he should never allow anyone to treat him that way. Yes, the little boy got in trouble, but he also received some much-needed help from the school counselor. Here’s the question. Did Hudson love this little boy like Jesus loves that little boy? I think so. And that is a vital truth in our walk with God – to love like Jesus loves. 

Hudson put feet to Jesus' words when he said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

That phrase, “As I have loved you,” changes everything when it comes to dealing with someone who has hurt us. Think of all the ways Jesus loves us. He willingly surrendered to his Father’s plan, giving up a throne for a manger and heaven for earth. He died the most brutal death known to mankind, crucifixion. He was despised, rejected, and did not even have a place to lay his head at night. And yet, He loves us completely and eternally in the midst of our sins, just as we are. 

And then … He calls us to love others the same way. Why? Because that kind of radical love can only be explained by God. So, the world will then know that we are His disciples and that his love is real. God empowers us with His love and then partners with us in loving others. This two-fold message is repeated again and again in the Bible. God loves us. God wants to love others through us.

God wants us to love each other in the same way that He loves – unconditionally. In fact, God wants us to love in such a way that the people around us will know we are fully devoted followers of Christ. I wonder what our relationships would look like if we did love the way Jesus loves us.

Nowhere in the Bible will you find the words, “When you feel like it, love others.” Nope! It is not in there. The Bible tells us to practice love. Love is an ongoing and very deliberate choice – not an emotion or a feeling. I challenge you to step out in faith today and choose to love that difficult person in your life the way Jesus loves you. 

Let’s Pray

Lord, I so want to be like Hudson when I grow up. To have a heart for those in pain, to be willing to step out in faith and love the unlovable and touch the untouchable. Father, the more I work and interact with difficult people, the more I realize there is always a reason for their abrasive behavior. That sandpaper may be a well-chosen mask or a carefully applied bandage for some deeply hidden wound that has never fully healed. Hurt people … hurt people. 

Lord, help me remember that everyone I meet is fighting some kind of battle I know nothing about. Teach me how to respond with love, not anger. Give me a heart for restoration, not retaliation. Father, help me love like you love. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Jesus is the Center..Craig Denison Ministries

 

Jesus is the Center

Craig Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

This life is marked by a single choice: who or what will we center our lives around? This choice takes each of us down a path of decisions that shape who we are, what we feel, who or what we value, and what we will have accomplished at the end of our days. To center our lives around ourselves or the things of this world leads only to destruction. But, to center our lives around meeting with God fills each moment with the glorious abundance of God’s love, provision, and transcendent peace. May your life be marked by union with your Creator as we explore what it means to center our lives around meeting with God this week.

Scripture:“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

Devotional:           

All of eternity centers around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He is the all-important, eternity-changing, and humanity-redeeming Son of the living God. Colossians 1:15 tells us, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Hebrews 1:3 says, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” And at the time of his return, Revelation 19:16 says, “On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

To center our lives around meeting with God is to build our foundation on the unshakable center of all eternity. To build our lives around encounters with Jesus is to place the anchor of our hope in the King of kings and Lord of lords. Only Jesus is faithful to his word. Only Jesus will accomplish that which he has promised us.

1 John 2:17 says, “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” The will of God is to center our lives around his loving presence. God’s greatest commandment is that we would simply love him with all we do. To live differently than the world around you by centering your life around encountering Jesus is to chart a new path that leads to the fullness of life.

It may appear foolish to the world to place your hope solely in the person of Jesus, but nothing could be more important. It may look different to cast aside the pursuits of society such as comfort, status, and acclaim, but no greater decision could be made. You serve a God who was, is, and is to come. You belong to a King who laid down his life that you might truly live. You’ll find no greater joy, peace, or purpose than in serving Jesus alone. There is no greater life than one lived in full devotion to the King of all the earth.

Take time today to recommit yourself fully to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Step away from the limited perspective and think about the divine, eternal kingdom of God. Allow the truth of God’s word and love to fill you with the courage to choose devotion to him over service to yourself and the world around you. May your day today be filled with the abiding presence of King Jesus.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on Scripture about the person of Jesus. Remember that Jesus is alive and near. He is the living God, and Scripture says your life is wrapped up in him.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

“Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

2. In what ways is your life not centered around Jesus? In what ways are you living for the earth rather than for eternity?

3. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you center your life around who Jesus was and is. Ask him to fill you with the knowledge of his nearness and love for you. Open your heart and receive the presence of Jesus. Ask him to show you ways that you can center your life around him today.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1

Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted as having said, “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.” Is your life so wrapped up in Jesus that you would love and serve him at any cost? If not, know that there is grace. We only come to a place of full devotion by spending time consistently being loved by a selfless, servant-hearted God. May you rest in the grace of your heavenly Father today as you pursue a life centered around your loving Savior.

Extended Reading: Colossians 3

What a Girl Wants..LANDRA YOUNG HUGHES

 What a Girl Wants

LANDRA YOUNG HUGHES 

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1 (NIV)

Let’s talk about reality TV.

OK, I know it might not be the best way to spend our time, and it definitely doesn’t look much like my real life as a mom of little ones in a decidedly tropical-island-free Texas suburb.

No matter where you stand on reality TV, I think a lot of us may agree on one point — a lot of shows just are not what they used to be. The happy ending isn’t there anymore. It’s all about the drama now — the twist, the shocker, the cliff-hanger. But it’s all so painfully staged and scripted.

Obviously, I’m still going to watch because I want to know what happens. But I also want my favorite show to go back to the way it was before — when it was authentic. But chances are, that’s not going to happen.

Isn’t that how we’re wired as humans? To want what we want.

These impulses don’t greatly affect our lives when it comes to the shows we binge, but what about when we want something with higher stakes? Our reactions to not getting what we want in high-stakes scenarios are a lot different than when our favorite show shifts plotlines.

In fact, we’re driven by our want-tos. You might say, “Landra, I spend my entire day doing stuff I don’t want to do.” And on the surface, that might be true. But if you look deeper, you’ll see that your don’t-want-tos get overridden by a less obvious but more pressing want-to.

Let me give you some examples:

You don’t want to work out, but you want to be in shape. So you work out.

You don’t want to drop your kids off at day care, but you want to be able to work your job and pay your bills. So you drop them off.

You don’t want to destroy the tradition of a long-standing TV show that many people are emotionally invested in, but you want to make money. So you destroy it with artificial drama.

See? Our want-tos are a powerful driving force in our lives. But what happens when our want-tos are broken? We know it’s possible. Even Paul said, “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19, NIV).

To keep our want-tos in line with God’s, there must be intentionality in how much power we give to our own desires. Our biggest want-to — the one that overrides all others — has to be finding peace with His want-to.

And that takes surrender.

What does it look like to surrender? To surrender is to lay down what is most precious to you — your heart’s desire — and say to God, “It’s Yours. If You give it back to me, I will praise You. If You don’t give it back to me, I will still praise You.”

After all, we are living sacrifices, and offering our want-tos and our very selves to God is true worship: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1).

I have felt so confident on the paths my want‑tos have led me down. I’ve even felt “called” to places by my want-tos, only to find my way cut short by immovable obstacles.

But could it be that our momentary disappointment and discomfort in the face of an unfulfilled desire is, in fact, a small inconvenience compared to the danger ahead, which we can’t see, that we'd face if that want‑to were fulfilled?

Let me say this: God is comfortable with our disappointment. In fact, He wants us to talk to Him about it. He wants to become our biggest want-to, and there are no lengths He won’t go to in order to draw us closer to Him.

God, thank You for loving me enough not to give me all of my want‑tos. I trade in my will for Yours, knowing that Your plan is always better. I pray that I would be patient, constant and obedient to Your voice alone. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. 

Obedience or Preference..Dr. Charles Stanley

 Obedience or Preference

Dr. Charles Stanley

Matthew 26:36-42

Every believer must choose whether he will live by the principle of obedience or follow his preferences. When a person commits to doing the Lord’s will, then every situation and decision is sifted through the standard of "God said it, so I’m going to do it—and that’s the end of it." He may complain, weep, or try to argue. But in the end he will be obedient, no matter what.

I recall being invited years ago to interview with a church in Atlanta. During the entire road trip, I told the Lord that I didn’t want to move. I fussed and carried on a good while, but I knew Atlanta would be my new home. I didn’t like the idea, but the alternative was unimaginable: there are few things more unpleasant than living with the nagging anxiety that you missed out on something good.

The Lord certainly understands our need to question, cry out, and petition Him for the strength to do what He asks. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that we have a high priest who can sympathize with us. Jesus wasn’t excited or happy about the cross. He grieved over the coming separation from His Father. Nevertheless, He was committed to following God’s will (Matt. 26:39). No one took Christ’s life from Him; He laid it down (John 10:18).

Our lives are about fulfilling God’s purpose. Many people miss His awesome plan for them because they choose to follow their preferences. Obedience is sometimes hard, but the struggle and sacrifice are worth it. There is joy and peace for the believer who pleases the Lord and lives by His principles.

God Uses the Bible to Change Us..Dr. Matthew Harmon

 God Uses the Bible to Change Us

By Dr. Matthew Harmon     

Psalm 19:7-11: “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”

The Bible is unlike any other book in the world. Nowhere else has God made himself known so clearly. But God did not give us the Bible simply for informational purposes. God gave us the Bible to transform us so that our lives more clearly reflect his Son, Jesus Christ. But before we can understand how God changes us through his Word, we need to look at why we need to be changed.

The Bible is clear that God made human beings in his own image (Gen 1:26–27). Because we are image-bearers he also gave humanity a commission to live out: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen 1:28). God made human beings to reflect his beauty as we fill the earth and rule over it under the authority of the ultimate king—God himself. By worshiping God, humanity would reflect his character. 

But things went horribly wrong. Adam and Eve rejected their identity as image-bearers by rebelling against God. Instead of joyfully submitting to God they placed themselves at the center of the universe (Gen 3:1–24) and committed idolatry (Rom 1:21–23). Now instead of worshiping God and reflecting his beauty, we pursue vain things like idols and become like them (Ps 115:3–8; 135:15–18; Isa 44:1–20). So because of Adam’s rebellion against God in the garden, we enter this world with a deeply ingrained tendency towards idolatry. We are like the shopping cart with the bent wheel that always pulls the cart the wrong direction. The way idolatry shows up varies from person to person. But no one is immune to it. Unless someone intervenes at the deepest level of our heart and soul we will pursue idolatry in some form or fashion.

Praise God that’s exactly what he’s done! As the true and complete image of God, Jesus Christ lived the life of perfect obedience that we could not live. He died the death that we should have died for our sins. He rose from the dead three days later to defeat our greatest enemies: sin, death, and the devil. Forty days later he ascended into heaven, and shortly afterward poured out the Holy Spirit on his people. In addition to making us spiritually alive, the Holy Spirit is the one who opens our eyes to see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). As a result, we are transformed into true worshipers who worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). As we worship the one true God in Jesus Christ, we become like him. As we see who Christ is and what he has done for us we are transformed so that we more fully reflect the image of Jesus Christ himself (2 Cor 3:18; 1 John 3:2-3).

So where do we see the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ most clearly? In the Bible. God has given us the Bible to tell us who he is, what he has done for us, and how we should live. He uses the Bible to change us so that our lives demonstrate that we bear his image. Reading God’s Word reveals our sin to us, and calls us to confess it and turn away from it. It prompts a desire in God’s people to pursue spiritual growth so that what we say, think, do, and feel reflects the one who is our rock and our redeemer.

Okay..Annie Yorty

 Okay

By Annie Yorty

"Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Joshua 31:8 NLT

I punched in the phone number with doubt in my heart. Last I had seen Andrea, she seemed open to the possibility of going on a mission trip to Siberia. Yes, Siberia. Since then, though, I had moved, and now I didn’t live close enough to personally shepherd her through the process. Would she go that far out of her comfort zone without me there to hold her hand?

To be sure, Siberia was as far as anything could get outside Andrea’s prior experience. With just two decades of life in rural Kentucky under her belt, she had barely left her hometown, much less flown on a plane to the opposite side of the world. Nevertheless, my doubts did not convince me to hang up before she answered.

“Hello?” Andrea’s chipper voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Hey there!” I launched straight into my pitch. “Guess what time it is? I’m getting ready to go to Siberia. Do you remember how you said you might like to go?”
“Yeah,” she replied.
“If you’re going, now’s the time to get started.”

“Okay.” Okay? Just like that? Thankfully, I managed to keep the disbelief inside my head.
I took a deep breath, sure the list I was about to unleash would send her running. “Let’s go over what you need. First, you’ll need to get a passport.”
“Okay.”
“Then you’ll need to get some immunizations.”
“Okay.”

Then I described the arduous travel, daily schedule, support raising, visa application, booking flights, packing, spiritual preparation, and myriad other tasks that would fill her to-do list. Her reply to each one? “Okay.” I chalked up her unflappability to youthful naivete. Yet her calm acceptance in the face of all these unknowns impressed me. From where did such courage come?

Andrea possessed a certainty about God’s calling—His plan to use her—that made her brave. She had learned about Him as a little girl because another person followed God’s calling to bring the Baptist church van into her neighborhood to take kids to Sunday school. God’s calling weaves the threads of lives together into a wonderful tapestry of His glory. 

A man named Isaiah from long ago is part of that glorious fabric. Much of what we know about him is mingled with tradition and speculation, but he writes about a dramatic event that instilled courage to follow God’s calling. God filled Isaiah’s mind with a vision of Himself seated on His throne in a heavenly temple. God’s palpable glory overwhelmed Isaiah. Though the text doesn’t explicitly say, I imagine Isaiah dropping flat on the floor as he realizes his utter unworthiness to be in the presence of God’s holiness.

A winged creature attending God flew to Isaiah and cleansed him, removing his guilt and forgiving his sin. Then the unthinkable happened. God asked the room a question with an obvious outcome in mind (Isaiah 6:8 NLT). Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”

Isaiah answered without hesitation. I said, “Here I am. Send me.” In other words, Isaiah said, “Okay.” God continues sending messengers to this day.

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned. (Mark 16:15-16 NASB)

Sin condemns people until they hear the gospel message and believe in the Lord Jesus. God called Andrea to speak His message of hope in Jesus to the people in Siberia. She’s not a member of some elite squad He chooses for this task. Indeed, God chooses every follower to participate. No excuses.

Jesus admonished his reluctant disciples about their excuses. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields, that they are white for harvest. (John 4:35 NASB)

The harvest represents people in this world whose hearts God’s Spirit prepared to receive the good news of Jesus. Their situation is urgent. In fact, their lives hang in the balance. It’s time for all of us to step up and say, “Okay.”

After my phone call to Andrea that day, she checked off one after another item on that daunting to-do list until she finally ended up in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia before dawn one freezing February morning. God used her all-in attitude to spread His healing gospel and glory to needy hearts. Those who received Jesus will meet us again in heaven one day as we enjoy eternity with Him.

All that comes from one simple word—okay.

Intersecting Faith and Life:
What fears hold you back from saying “okay” to God’s call? Will you pray for the courage to obey Him?

Further Reading:
Isaiah 6:1-13