JESUS gives us four actions for dealing with people who antagonize us. matthew 5.44 in the king james version, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you.
pray for them.
now there are four things there. you say that you love them, you bless them, you do good to them and you
let me give you a little secret, if you will do the last one first, the other three will come automatically. it will be much easier.
if you will start praying for those people who irritate you on your job or at home or at school, if you start praying for them, it is much easier to love them and to bless them and to do good to them because you cannot pray for someone without having your attitude eventually change, because god starts working in your own heart.
you see the bible says that love is not irritable
when the world puts pressure on you at work, if you are filled with love, love comes out. if you are filled with anger when the world puts pressure on you, anger comes out. if you are filled with self when the world puts pressure on you self comes out. if you are filled with frustration.
it is whatever is inside of you, that is what will come out of you. whatever is inside the toothpaste tube, when i squeeze it, that is what is going to come out. whatever is on the inside is what will spill out at work.
you see, if you are filled with love almost nothing will irritate you. that's why i said the mark of maturity is that you don't get offended easily. your feelings aren't hurt easily. that's a mark of maturity.
when you're filled with love almost nothing irritates you. when you are filled with anger almost anything irritates you. almost anything tics you off. it's like holding up a fuse to a box of tnt or dynamite, it’s just waiting to be set.
just a thought from the front porch…
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