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You can listen to this post on Refresh Her podcast.
“I Just love conflict!
said no one.
Ever.
We all avoid it. We’d rather put up with someone, overlook what might be rightfully ours, or look the other way at a grievance, just to avoid the stickiness a confrontation would bring. While it is wise at times to turn the other cheek, to overlook a transgression for the sake of love, there are times/situations that demand a confrontation.
Continue reading “Wisely Dealing with Conflict”You can listen to this post on Refresh Her Podcast where you will find a deeper study and application.
We had an evangelist friend who would often say, The ministry would be fun if it weren’t for people! We are all probably tempted to say that about life in general! Life would be fun if it weren’t for people! Why?
Continue reading “Dealing with Difficult People, Part 1”You can listen to today’s post here on Refresh Her podcast.
The dishwater was warm and sudsy and I was busy at work cleaning up the supper dishes, but my mind was in a totally different place. Mentally I was re-reading the email that had been sent. It was a letter of betrayal and the ending of a friendship. I was shocked, hurt and reeling from the surprise of it all. We had ministered together in church. We had prayed over burdens and cared for one another’s griefs, but now she was gone, from the church and my life.
Continue reading “Practical Help When You’re Drowning in the Hurts of Ministry, Part 3”
It was one of those epiphany moments. A keen understanding of an essential truth came to me while I was doing a calligraphy drawing on my pantry chalkboard. I had been heavy hearted and downcast regarding a situation and had been slugging my way through the day with it wrapped around my heart like a snake’s grasp on a bird. Then as I was writing the words,
Pray without ceasing.
the Spirit of God whispered to my heart, “Yes, Denise. You need to go pray.”
Earlier in the morning I had my quiet time with the Lord. I had read His Word and spent time in prayer, giving Him praise and also my burdens. Then this issue had cropped up and the quietness had dissipated. Filling its place was unrest and uneasiness. I felt anxious and irritable.
Up until this moment, I had stuffed that anxiety with scrolling Instagram and other futile minute-wasters. The result was only more emptiness.
Now at God’s prompting to obey this verse that I had carefully written on my board, I did just that. I went back to my quiet place – kneeling at chair in a room upstairs. I poured out my heart before God, asking for His intervention and help. I asked Him to help me appropriate the peace that is mine in Christ. Colossians 3:15 I rose from my knees with a peace that truly does pass human understanding.
How foolish it is of me not to return to that place of prayer often, if not physically, at least in my heart. It’s the only place where I’ll find rest. It certainly isn’t in found in my own thoughts or secular entertainment. It’s found in the presence of my Savior.
If your heart feels anxious, instead of stuffing it with a Netflix series, food, or social media, may I encourage you to go find a place to be alone with God and pour out your heart to Him? Why? Because He cares.
Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
I Peter 5:7
He can also do something about your situation! But He is waiting for you to ask.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Matthew 7:7
Perhaps this blog post is your epiphany to “Go Pray!” God loves you enough to invite you to bring your burdens to Him, then to listen to you when you do.
Now, Go Pray.
As a woman who loves to bake, I can tell you that there’s nothing more disheartening than baking up a new bread recipe then cutting a slice after it’s cooled only to find that it’s dry!
Ugh.
It’s frustrating to go to all that trouble only to have dry morsels fill your mouth like so many tumbleweeds in the desert. But did you know that God’s Word tells us that there is a time when dry bread can be a good thing?!
Proverbs 17: 1 says
Better is a dry morsel with quietness,
Than a house full of feasting with strife.
There is nothing appealing about a dry morsel to our taste buds, but God’s Word says the blessing of quietness and peace is so great, that it makes a dry morsel more desirable than moist bread, dipped in Olive oil!
This passage is saying that peace in the home is beyond all other material blessings. A home full of feasting is wonderful, until that home is full of strife. Have you experienced how hard it is to take a bite of anything when there’s strife and contention around the table? We all have.
If peace is so desirable, then what keeps us from having it? Why isn’t it permeating from our family relationships as it should?
There can be other causes, but ladies, God’s Word gives us several pictures in Proverbs that point the finger of strife in our direction. It’s a hard picture to look at because it’s very telling. This is convicting to my own selfish heart. Listen to ways we can destroy the peace…
A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping. Prov. 19:13
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house. Prov. 21:9
Prov. 25:24 It is better to live on a corner of the roof than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
Prov. 15:16, 17 Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure with turmoil.
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, Than a fatted calf with hatred.
Listen to what is being traded in so that apeace can be found –
What would a person take so they could enjoy quietness at home?
Love sweetens dry morsels
~Matthew Henry
If you’re realizing that there is little peace in your home, recognize that if you are a child of God, you have the Prince of Peace living in you! The Christ in you should permeate each relationship, allowing His peace to rule.
Ask the Lord if you’ve contributed to the strife by being contentious and quarrelsome. Be still and let His Spirit speak to you. Then humble yourself and make it right before God and also your family. Invite them to come in off the rooftop, and serve up some dry morsels, slathered with love. Peace will return.
P.S. It’s better for your pride to be hurt than your family destroyed.
Lovingly,
RefreshHer 