Ephesians 4:25-26
"So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger; and do not make room for the devil."
How many of us hear someone's words to us and those words hurt us? It's always surprising that those words cut into us - our inner selves - like a cut to our skin. It hurts! Then it's even more amazing how we live with those hurt-filled words for a long time. These words haunt us in our day dreaming. They flood our memory as we are trying to settle down for sleep. If you are someone who remembers your dreams, you may even replay the conversation in someway during the night! Its remarkable how these moments give us mental paralysis that stifle our energy and give us a mental 'limp' as we go about our daily lives.
It doesn't take too long for these moments to fester and we begin to speak to others the way someone spoke to us. Ugh - it's a dilemma.
Someone once said to me, "You can't choose what people say or do to you, but you can choose how you respond to them." Paul, the writer of Ephesians, encourages us to do the same. I appreciate how Paul acknowledges our anger in difficult situations, but he presses us to not act out of anger. In fact, he charges us to keep the wiles of the devil out of our conversations.
If you only had 30 days to live - what words would you want quoted at your funeral luncheon?
When difficult words come your way today, how will you choose to respond? What words will you seek to speak? How would God have us speak to our 'neighbors' today?
-Pastor Rhonda
