Friday, April 22, 2022
Lord! Help! Here they come again. Help me keep my cool and be gracious. Believers and non-believers alike have them — difficult people who somehow manage to “push our button.” We see them coming and our first instinct is to find someplace to hide. Dealing with difficult people is unavoidable, but for the believer, You have something else in mind besides hiding. We don’t chase after them, You deliberately bring these people into our sphere of influence. Teach us how to deal with those self-centered, obnoxiously prideful, snobbishly condescending, or just plain rude, people. Help us control our self-control to guard our tongue, especially since our carnal nature can bring out the worst non-Christlikeness in us. As believers, we can’t believe these are just random “run ins.” Lord, You allow these encounters to develop our spiritual “fruit,” our “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,” and the biggie— “self-control,” (Galatians 5:22,23). Even though we practice the Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12), not everyone will respond in kind and not all encounters may not unfold as we’d like. Nonetheless, we honor You by responding as You did, Jesus, when You dealt with such people. Open our eyes to see them not as some annoyance but someone who needs an encounter with You.
And Lord, keep me from being one of those “button pushers” that people want to hide from. Amen.
THANKFUL 
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