You probably know several hotheads.
You might even be one.
Yes, God loves hotheads just like He loves every human.
But He doesn’t love the pre-disposition to angry attitudes and behavior.
In fact, God said the hothead’s lack of self-control defines him or her as a fool.
Here is a brief verse in today’s One-Year Bible reading.
“Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult.” Proverbs 12:16
It’s clear that God wants believers to have cooler heads.
God wants us to be defined by how we retain self-control in stressful situations rather than lose control when somebody offends us.
Does God think less of us because a foolish person insulted us?
No.
Aren’t we wimpy if we don’t confront insults with “fire from heaven” as we understand it?
No.
Actually, we show strength when we choose to take a breath or two, or perhaps even take a walk, before we launch into rebuttal mode because of the insult.
It’s likely that somebody will insult you this week or next. We live in a fallen world and circles of influence have no perfect people. That means that wounding words will lance us sooner or later.
When that happens, we can be foolish or we can be wise.
Tearing into somebody who has ticked us off reveals spiritual immaturity.
Choose the better, wiser way.
Let it go.
Be defined by how you reflect faith, not by how you ignore it for the sake of defending your ego.
God will be proud of you when you care more about what He thinks than about what the fool thinks.
As always, I love you
Martin
