No More Quarreling
God hates quarreling. Quarreling does not accomplish the will of God, but it keep us from doing the will of God. There are numerous places in the Bible that teach this truth. However, none is any more meaningful to me than the story of Abimelech's herdsmen quarreling with Isaac's headsmen over the wells of water that Isaac was re-digging. (Genesis 26:22) Let's see what we can learn from this passage.
Isaac knew that quarreling was not going to solve anything, so he moved away with his servants and animals. He was not running away in anger. He was moving away, instead of continuing the conflict. We must realize that it takes two to argue, so if we step back and keep our mouths shut, the strife will stop. Then, we are not lowering ourselves to the level of the people who are giving us grief. God will bless that type of behavior.
Then, if we follow the Lord's leadership after separating ourselves from a conflict, He can lead us to a place where there is "room" for us to live without conflict. It is not that we move to a new city, but we find people with whom we can work without strife. Of course, the best thing is to work it out with the person who was attacking us, but if that is not possible, we can find our "Rehoboth."
Once we find that peaceful place to dwell and the people with whom we can cooperate well, we will bear fruit through our relationships and our lives. That is God's will for us. He wants us to bear fruit, but quarreling all of the time prevents that from happening. We must do whatever is necessary to call upon the Lord and come to the place of fruit bearing, so we can glorify Him by what we say and do.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Genesis 27-29.
Isaac knew that quarreling was not going to solve anything, so he moved away with his servants and animals. He was not running away in anger. He was moving away, instead of continuing the conflict. We must realize that it takes two to argue, so if we step back and keep our mouths shut, the strife will stop. Then, we are not lowering ourselves to the level of the people who are giving us grief. God will bless that type of behavior.
Then, if we follow the Lord's leadership after separating ourselves from a conflict, He can lead us to a place where there is "room" for us to live without conflict. It is not that we move to a new city, but we find people with whom we can work without strife. Of course, the best thing is to work it out with the person who was attacking us, but if that is not possible, we can find our "Rehoboth."
Once we find that peaceful place to dwell and the people with whom we can cooperate well, we will bear fruit through our relationships and our lives. That is God's will for us. He wants us to bear fruit, but quarreling all of the time prevents that from happening. We must do whatever is necessary to call upon the Lord and come to the place of fruit bearing, so we can glorify Him by what we say and do.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Genesis 27-29.