Matthew 5:9
“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.”
Emotions are hard to understand. Try to accurately describe how you are feeling to a group of people and chances are you’ll end up with as many different understandings as there are people in the group you are speaking to. If you ever have trouble understanding how someone feels emotionally, try to sympathize with them rather than getting caught up in “figuring them out”. Whatever you do, don’t try to talk them out of how they feel; just listen. Even if their emotions seem illogical to you, don’t withhold your support or friendship. Feelings don’a always make sense. “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.” Psalm 73:21-22
David is not alone is he? Most of us act differently when we are hurting, many times illogical ideas take control during those times. Solomon says, “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.” Proverbs 19:11
Patiently listening to another person tell you how they feel says to them, “I care about our relationship more than our differences; you matter to me.” Sure, it’s a sacrifice to patiently absorb someone’s anger or fear, especially when it’s unfounded. But remember, that’s what Jesus does for us!
If you’ve hurt someone else’s feelings, confess your part (even if you didn’t intend any hurt). Ask yourself if you are truly treating others in a loving, peaceful, and Godly way. Do you have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control when interacting with others? Or, do you have frustration, anger, bitterness, impatience, and little tolerance? Here’s a tough one; ask God to put someone in your life to hold you accountable in your actions and attitude. When left unaccounted for, we are prone to become callus and bitter because of the way the world treats us. If we go to long acting in such a way without anyone keeping us in check, then we become almost frozen in our bad attitude. If stuck in this condition year after year after year, we won’t even be able to see our own faults when we really do hurt someone. Remember, our attitude and our actions towards others is sometimes our only witness.
Related Text:
Matthew 7:5
“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
