Do you have a difficult person in your life - a person who makes you nuts? Do you wonder, "Is there a Godly response to this person?" If you’re faced with that person right now, join Chip as he shares how to deal with the difficult people in your life.
Main Points
Thesis: Sometimes the person we most want God to remove from our lives is the person we need the most.
Why? Because:
- The way we treat difficult people reveals the true condition of our heart.
- Difficult people cause us to grow in ways we couldn’t on our own.
- The most distinguishing mark of Jesus’ followers is their love for those they would not and could not love on their own.
What does “bearing with” others look like?
- With humility – See them and treat them as people of equal or superior value than yourself.
- With gentleness – Extend undeserved acts of kindness and acceptance that are foreign to you with this person.
- With patience – Refuse to allow your irritation and frustration to erupt into negative thoughts, feelings, and comments to or about them.
- With forgiveness – Release them from your internal desire to pay them back for the frustration, difficulty, and wounds they inflicted upon you.
Why is “bearing with” difficult people so important?
- It increases my appreciation of God’s love toward me.
- It demonstrates God’s love toward them.
- It changes me where I need it most.
- It communicates the reality and authenticity of Christ to the world.
Conclusion: Sometimes the person I most want God to remove from my life is the very person I need the most!
Action Steps:
- Identify the most difficult person in your life right now.
- Begin praying everyday for this person for the next two weeks.
- Stop consciously avoiding them and start seeing them like Christ does. (see Colossians 3:12)
- Serve them in some specific way this week.
- Discuss these action steps with your friends, family, growth group, Bible study, and/or ministry team.
Broadcast Resource
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About Chip Ingram
Chip Ingram’s passion is helping Christians really live like Christians. As a pastor, author, and teacher for more than three decades, Chip has helped believers around the world move from spiritual spectators to healthy, authentic disciples of Jesus by living out God’s truth in their lives and relationships in transformational ways.
About Living on the Edge
Living on the Edge exists to help Christians live like Christians. Established in 1995 as the radio ministry of pastor and author Chip Ingram, God has since grown it into a global discipleship ministry. Living on the Edge provides Biblical teaching and discipleship resources that challenge and equip spiritually hungry Christians all over the world to become mature disciples of Jesus.
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