Dealing with Difficult People - Psalms 35-36 and Acts 25
We all have to deal with people who are against us for one reason or another, but David had an abundance of this kind of people since he was the king. It seems to me that David understood God's way of dealing with these people for the most part. He prayed for them, and he asked God to deal with them to change their hearts and to protect him from them. The basis for this type of action is that the problem is not the person, but it is their sin that causes the problem. If we think that people are the problem, we are mistaken. The struggle is with the spiritual forces that cause people to act like they act. Therefore, we need the intervention of God to change their hearts. Sometimes, we need God to remove them. Then, in some cases God wants us to confront them. The key is to pray and ask God to show us His way of dealing with these individuals. Mostly, we do not want to stoop to their level, and we do not want to allow them to drive us to sin, because that would be more destructive to us than anything they could do to us. Finally, I think we need to realize in many cases that the difficult people in our lives are suffering from the sin that is controlling them. We should feel sorry for them, instead of being angry with them. As we pray for them, we will develop a love for them, and this godly love will help us see clearly how to help them.
Paul had a lot of experience with difficult people, too. He still accomplished much in his life. The Jews were after him. The unbelieving Gentiles were against him. Even some of the believers were against him. I do not see Paul being defeated by these people. I see God leading him to overcome everything they did against him, so His will could be done. Yes, he did have to go to prison, and he had to stand before several rulers to plead his case. In the end, he was able to witness to them and to make it to Rome which was God's will all along. None of those difficult people were able to derail his life, since he trusted God and dealt with them as God led him. That is what we must do. We must not let people defeat us. We must keep our eyes on God's goal for us and keep going forward for Him.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 37-39 and Acts 26.
Paul had a lot of experience with difficult people, too. He still accomplished much in his life. The Jews were after him. The unbelieving Gentiles were against him. Even some of the believers were against him. I do not see Paul being defeated by these people. I see God leading him to overcome everything they did against him, so His will could be done. Yes, he did have to go to prison, and he had to stand before several rulers to plead his case. In the end, he was able to witness to them and to make it to Rome which was God's will all along. None of those difficult people were able to derail his life, since he trusted God and dealt with them as God led him. That is what we must do. We must not let people defeat us. We must keep our eyes on God's goal for us and keep going forward for Him.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 37-39 and Acts 26.