"Just be nice!"...But I don't always feel like it! Sometimes I feel down right ugly and mean. I don't have it in myself to be nice, especially when I feel like someone else may be deserving of my "meanness"! It is so easy to be angry when someone is mistreating you in someway. The natural response when someone attacks our character or questions our behaviour is to get angry . To be kind and sweet just doesn't flow naturally...at least not for me and I think if you are not pious and legalistic you would admit that it is true for you too! I have to pray fervently in order for the peace of God to take over and to replace that anger with a love and kindness and a mercy for the offender.
It has been impressed upon me lately that God is never finished working on us until the very moment that He takes us home. Just when you think you are where you should be spiritually, you find out there is something else creeping in that you need to deal with! Like....Anger? Envy? Bitterness? Wow...too many issues to work on...I think I will live a long, long time! I am reminded once again what the Bible has to say about anger.....so much! Proverbs 14:17 "He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly."
Proverbs 15:18 "A wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife."
Proverbs15:1 "A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger."
Proverbs 27:4 " Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous; but who can stand against envy?"
Colossians 3:8 " But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,filthy communication out of your mouth."
Ephesians 4:31,32 "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
OK, God...I get it..and I see there are many more verses on this subject! Wow. Give me the help I need to be nice even when I don't want to....because I see that to YOU ...Nice Matters.
It has been impressed upon me lately that God is never finished working on us until the very moment that He takes us home. Just when you think you are where you should be spiritually, you find out there is something else creeping in that you need to deal with! Like....Anger? Envy? Bitterness? Wow...too many issues to work on...I think I will live a long, long time! I am reminded once again what the Bible has to say about anger.....so much! Proverbs 14:17 "He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly."
Proverbs 15:18 "A wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife."
Proverbs15:1 "A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger."
Proverbs 27:4 " Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous; but who can stand against envy?"
Colossians 3:8 " But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,filthy communication out of your mouth."
Ephesians 4:31,32 "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
OK, God...I get it..and I see there are many more verses on this subject! Wow. Give me the help I need to be nice even when I don't want to....because I see that to YOU ...Nice Matters.
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