It's not a question of if, but when. You WILL encounter people who are difficult to work with. The question is, how will you treat them?
In this episode, we will be looking at how Jesus handled difficult people. The saviour of mankind was not always happy with the people He was working with, but He always acted righteously. Even when He was flipping tables, His anger did not cause Him to sin. We, on the other hand, have anger inside of us that doesn't produce the righteousness of God (James 1:20). He never gave up on people, but we are quick to write people off. He was extremely patient, but our patience melts like snow on a hot summer day whenever we run across someone who treats disrespectfully. All of this to say, we must be intentional about putting on the character of Christ whenever we deal with difficult people.
The Holy Spirit desires to give us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We ought to prayerfully lift our eyes to the hills from whence our help comes and ask God to give us everything we need when we deal with those who frusturate us. When we do, we are able to act in wisdom and kindness towards others.
There are 5 specific pieces of advice I'll be sharing.
1. We must be pateint with difficult people.
2. We must love difficult people.
3. We must forgive difficult people.
4. We must be firm with difficult people.
5. We must try to maintain unity and peace at all times.
I hope that this episode gives you practical tools to help you in your next encounter with a difficult person. Remember that God loves them as much as He loves you, so you also must love them, no matter how much they bother and frusturate you. I pray that God would enlighten you to the strength that is available to you through the Holy Spirit so you may act in such a way that is pleasing to God at all times.
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