This past week my mother and I started at Ladies Bible Study again and we're continuing to go through our book called What Do I Know About My God? by Mardi Collier. We started this book back in the fall of 2016 and are slowly making our way through it and I couldn't be more thankful. Between the first meeting until now I received some pretty disheartening news about my health and I went through all the emotions you could possibly think of. From being sad and having a pity party for myself to being angry and really frustrated with God. It took me a couple of months and a lot of patience from the Lord, but I finally understand why he has chosen me to walk this path of life. I'm not going to give too much detail here now because I have a new blog series going up in the future about all of it, my medical condition, the medications and procedures and how God has used me during all of it but I wanted to share this first; even though I doubted everything and was in a very dark place God brought me through using both people and these Bible Studies. Today I want to focus on the chapter we did on Thursday night with our group called My God is the Judge.
When folks think of God as judge they think more "who are you to judge me? Leave that for God." I do believe it is our job to point out when something wrong is taking place but there does come a point when you need to let go and let God handle it, but I want to talk about letting GOD handle those who have wronged us for HE is the JUDGE. I think this is a hard pill for some to swallow, including me. You see when someone does me wrong I want to correct it. I want to stop the hurt and sometimes if I'm feeling a certain way I want that person to feel exactly like how I felt when they wronged me! In the book (page 73) Mardi talks about a situation in which she had a problem with a friend and it took her a long time to work through the issue biblically - haven't we all been there? She remembers not being able to sleep one night because she kept rehearsing the problem in her mind - again me! She finally gets out of bed and tells the Lord "you have got to give me something from your word to help me." In comes Psalm 37. I encourage you to read the entire Psalm because it talks about how the righteous will be blessed and how the Lord will handle the wicked. Mardi talks about verses 1 - 11 in the book so lets do the same.
Psalm 37:1 - 2
Fret not thyself because of evildoers, nether be thou envious again the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
David's, the author of the Psalm, first piece of advice is to "fret not thyself." The word fret mean "to glow with anger, to grow warm or burn, to be incensed or indignant." We stew over the offense and examine every angle of it. We can become indignant that anyone would treat us in this unkind manner. We even find ourselves having imaginary conversations with the person, expressing our case in eloquent and convincing language. David warns us that fretting is not the proper or correct way to handle our distress.
Psalm 37:3 - 4
Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desire of thine heart.
The first step in any conflict should always be for me to evaluate my own life and humbly ask God to show me where I am wrong, what I need to change, and if there is a blind spot I am not seeing. I should then go to the other person and attempt to resolve the problem. Once I have done everything I possible can to resolve the conflict biblically, I must leave it in the Judge's hands and trust Him to deal with it. When we have ongoing problems in relationships we find ourselves spending a great deal of our time thinking about the others involved. We can allow this person to dominate our thinking. We need to be delighting in God. Instead of meditating on the hurt and how to fix it, focus your mental energy on God. When your mind wanders to the problem, steer it back to God and meditate on His Word and give the problem back to Him.
Psalm 37:5 - 6
Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgement as the noonday.
One important action that you can take is to diligently pray for the situation and the people involved. God can handle it. You can't!
Psalm 37:7 - 10
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet for a little while, and the wicked shall not be, yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be.
Our leader of the group shared two more verses that go along with these. Colossians 3:15 "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." and James 1:20 "For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."
God does things in His own time and His timetable is almost never the same as ours. He knows all about our problems, he knows the hearts of the ones involved, and he is at work whether we can see it or not. Sometime we are allowed to see the end results, sometimes we may never see what he has done (Job didn't!!).If we continue to dwell on an unresolved conflict and take things into our own hands, even if we don't believe we are at fault, we can become angry and eventually fret ourselves into doing wrong. Let God deal with the problem.
Psalm 37:11
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
If you are right with Him, God will give you a sweet peace in spite of the difficult relationship. He knows your heart, even if someone misunderstands us, God is the one who matters. When you're going through a hurtful situation, the temptation is to want to justify yourself or protect your reputation, to teach that person a lesson, or even to get back at them in a roundabout way, but that is not our job! Romans 12:19 "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."
The author does go on to talk about "God is the judge and I am not" on pages 75 - 78 basically saying my God doesn't want me to be judgemental. Now this particular subject is going to come up in my later posts so I want to save my thoughts for them but I'll leave the verses Mardi shared in the book for you to look up on your own time and keep as a reminder that you are not to be judgemental of others for choices or decisions they have made.
James 4:11-12
Romans 14:10-13
Luke 6:36-37
Matthew 7:1-5
This study was an eye-opener for me. I've had past conflicts and strained relationships that I finally had to give to the Lord but it's nice to read this chapter and know that the Lord is working on something in my life. Because I've been through some difficulties I am better able to handle future situations better and biblically and now I have verses to help me through this hard times. I will tell you this from personal experience, it is SO freeing when you finally let go of the issues and let God handle it. I'm a yellow-brainer (future topic) which means I like to be in control all the time which also means it's extremely hard for me to just let go but I promise sweet relief once you do.
I hope this has helped you as you learn to deal with difficult people and situations. I want to continue to share what I learn in our Bible Study with my online family.
XOXOXO
JJ
When folks think of God as judge they think more "who are you to judge me? Leave that for God." I do believe it is our job to point out when something wrong is taking place but there does come a point when you need to let go and let God handle it, but I want to talk about letting GOD handle those who have wronged us for HE is the JUDGE. I think this is a hard pill for some to swallow, including me. You see when someone does me wrong I want to correct it. I want to stop the hurt and sometimes if I'm feeling a certain way I want that person to feel exactly like how I felt when they wronged me! In the book (page 73) Mardi talks about a situation in which she had a problem with a friend and it took her a long time to work through the issue biblically - haven't we all been there? She remembers not being able to sleep one night because she kept rehearsing the problem in her mind - again me! She finally gets out of bed and tells the Lord "you have got to give me something from your word to help me." In comes Psalm 37. I encourage you to read the entire Psalm because it talks about how the righteous will be blessed and how the Lord will handle the wicked. Mardi talks about verses 1 - 11 in the book so lets do the same.
Psalm 37:1 - 2
Fret not thyself because of evildoers, nether be thou envious again the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
David's, the author of the Psalm, first piece of advice is to "fret not thyself." The word fret mean "to glow with anger, to grow warm or burn, to be incensed or indignant." We stew over the offense and examine every angle of it. We can become indignant that anyone would treat us in this unkind manner. We even find ourselves having imaginary conversations with the person, expressing our case in eloquent and convincing language. David warns us that fretting is not the proper or correct way to handle our distress.
Psalm 37:3 - 4
Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desire of thine heart.
The first step in any conflict should always be for me to evaluate my own life and humbly ask God to show me where I am wrong, what I need to change, and if there is a blind spot I am not seeing. I should then go to the other person and attempt to resolve the problem. Once I have done everything I possible can to resolve the conflict biblically, I must leave it in the Judge's hands and trust Him to deal with it. When we have ongoing problems in relationships we find ourselves spending a great deal of our time thinking about the others involved. We can allow this person to dominate our thinking. We need to be delighting in God. Instead of meditating on the hurt and how to fix it, focus your mental energy on God. When your mind wanders to the problem, steer it back to God and meditate on His Word and give the problem back to Him.
Psalm 37:5 - 6
Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgement as the noonday.
One important action that you can take is to diligently pray for the situation and the people involved. God can handle it. You can't!
Psalm 37:7 - 10
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet for a little while, and the wicked shall not be, yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be.
Our leader of the group shared two more verses that go along with these. Colossians 3:15 "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." and James 1:20 "For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."
God does things in His own time and His timetable is almost never the same as ours. He knows all about our problems, he knows the hearts of the ones involved, and he is at work whether we can see it or not. Sometime we are allowed to see the end results, sometimes we may never see what he has done (Job didn't!!).If we continue to dwell on an unresolved conflict and take things into our own hands, even if we don't believe we are at fault, we can become angry and eventually fret ourselves into doing wrong. Let God deal with the problem.
Psalm 37:11
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
If you are right with Him, God will give you a sweet peace in spite of the difficult relationship. He knows your heart, even if someone misunderstands us, God is the one who matters. When you're going through a hurtful situation, the temptation is to want to justify yourself or protect your reputation, to teach that person a lesson, or even to get back at them in a roundabout way, but that is not our job! Romans 12:19 "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."
The author does go on to talk about "God is the judge and I am not" on pages 75 - 78 basically saying my God doesn't want me to be judgemental. Now this particular subject is going to come up in my later posts so I want to save my thoughts for them but I'll leave the verses Mardi shared in the book for you to look up on your own time and keep as a reminder that you are not to be judgemental of others for choices or decisions they have made.
James 4:11-12
Romans 14:10-13
Luke 6:36-37
Matthew 7:1-5
This study was an eye-opener for me. I've had past conflicts and strained relationships that I finally had to give to the Lord but it's nice to read this chapter and know that the Lord is working on something in my life. Because I've been through some difficulties I am better able to handle future situations better and biblically and now I have verses to help me through this hard times. I will tell you this from personal experience, it is SO freeing when you finally let go of the issues and let God handle it. I'm a yellow-brainer (future topic) which means I like to be in control all the time which also means it's extremely hard for me to just let go but I promise sweet relief once you do.
I hope this has helped you as you learn to deal with difficult people and situations. I want to continue to share what I learn in our Bible Study with my online family.
XOXOXO
JJ
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