07/31/21 Wisdom in Conflict- Part Two: Reliance on God
Notes
Transcript
The book of Proverbs is about how our relationship with God has practical life implications. Today we will looking at more implications for how our relationship with God impacts how we deal with conflict.
32 Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
This becomes the overarching theme of today’s sermon. We all have our own weakness in this area, conflict. Scripture tells us that physical strength itself means nothing without learning to harness our tempers.
But here is one of those dirty little secrets about the weaknesses in our life. We can’t get rid of them merely by hating our weaknesses. No addiction or sin habit can be eliminated from our lives by obsessing about it. Self loathing, anger at ourselves, hate of the sin itself is not enough. No, whenever something negative is taken out of our lives it needs to be pushed out by something from God.
We need true strength.
We can’t get it on our own.
As Christians in a relationship with God, what we often ignore is that a relationship with Christ means that through him, we can be changed. In fact, when we are confronted with those stubborn areas of sin in our lives that seem impossible to change, the work of God within us is the only thing that can defeat it. The strength in Proverbs is not our own, it only belongs to the LORD.
The goal of Proverbs is to not only urge us to obtain this self control, but to point out to us a few different occasions through life where we would do well to use it.
14 The beginning of strife is like letting out water,
so quit before the quarrel breaks out.
There is an old Dutch story about this little boy, who noticed a small leak in the wall of his village’s dike. Instead of leaving it, he instead chose to climbed down into the dike, and plugged the hole with his finger. He stood there for hours, until someone finally found him, and was able to go for help.
The reason why is that water has an erosive property. It only takes a little whole for the water to spurt through, and little bit by little bit the water widens the whole until its gushing through a gap. Conflict is the same way. This proverb urges us to cut it off when the slight is small before it becomes a big thing. remember, its not just about what we actively say or do, its also about any passive actions we take.
Bottom line, if you want to do something that will seemingly assuage your hurt feelings, its probably not a good idea. True, godly strength, often feels frustrating in the short term, but always proves satisfying in the long haul.
However, there’s another side to this too.
9 Whoever covers an offense seeks love,
but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.
Look ya’ll, the burden for peace doesn’t just lie on the back of the people who mess up. It is up to all of us. More often than not, it means getting slighted, and letting it go.