Hostility

How many hostile people have you had to deal with?  Sometimes we have to deal with people that are just plain angry.  At times I run into people that get angry when I pass them on my bike for no reason.  I try to be careful when I ride so I won’t cause any unnecessary problems, but every now and then there are people that spout off at the mouth regardless of how careful I try to be.  

I remember just taking a walk with my wife and having a group of young people start shooting their mouths off disrespecting us for no reason.  It was very hard for me to control my temper, and I have to admit I didn’t do it very well, but I thank the Lord for His help because it could have been much worse.  

It seems like it is a normal thing today to be treated unkindly and many times this happens with some people that claim to be Christians.  The reason I know this is that I have not only had it happen to me but I have done it myself, to my shame.  If this has happened to you, how did it make you feel?  How did you respond and how did you want to respond?  We know, if we are Christians, how we ‘should’ respond but if we were truly honest that is not always the way we ‘want’ to respond, sometimes we want to respond from our flesh and get back at the person, which in many cases is just because our pride is hurt.  

The Word says in Proverbs 15:1, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”  When we allow our flesh to get in the way words come out of our mouths that stir up more anger and hostility and make the situation far worse than if we took control of our emotions and stayed calm and responded with a gentle answer or none at all.  But I want to say this, far too often we are not held accountable for our actions and instead of learning the lesson we end up repeating it over and over again. It is so easy to say that we are only human and we are not perfect so we do not learn anything from our sinful behavior.

Saying that, let me go on and say there will be times when our best intentions will be taken wrong.  We might say and do all the right things and say them very calmly and still be attacked and treated harshly, what do we do then?  These words in verse 12 of Proverbs 15 might help, “A scoffer does not love one who corrects him, nor will he go to the wise.”   There will be times, no matter what you say or how you say it will not help the situation, only the Lord will be able to get through to some people so we need to hold them up in prayer and continue to love them.

This problem also comes up at times when we try to teach and minister to some people, then we need to put these words from 2 Timothy 2:24 into practice, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient.”  I have had a struggle at times with this over the years, it seems like some people want to be right and do not want to be corrected even if it is the truth that you confront them with.  To my shame there have been times that I have been very impatient and not very gentle and I have wept over this problem and asked the Lord to forgive me.  

It is easy to quote verses but we need to do more than that, we need to put them into practice.  My prayer is that these tidbits will be a blessing and encouragement to all who read them.  Have a great day and may the Lord’s blessings be with you and yours!!