When someone disappoints or upsets you, what do you do? Pull out your big guns and react? Do you say, \u2018You make me so mad!\u2019? When you say that, you\u2019re admitting someone else is controlling your emotions. You\u2019re acknowledging you have given that person the power to determine your feelings and reactions. No one can take control from you\u2014you give it away the moment you start reacting! <\/p>\n
The Bible says, \u2018Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.\u2019<\/i> (Romans\u00a012:21\u00a0NIV) To retaliate is to react. But to forgive is to act. It\u2019s saying, \u2018I choose the way I respond.\u2019 Do other people control your emotional state? Do you let them raise your happiness level or plunge you into worry, fear, or anger? <\/p>\n
\u2018Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city.\u2019<\/i> (Proverbs\u00a016:32\u00a0NLT) The person who can control their moods and reactions is stronger than a walled city. But a person who cannot control their own spirit is defenceless, like a city with no walls around it. That person has no defence; they are at the mercy of whatever anyone wants to do to them. <\/p>\n
Strength is found in gentleness, and gentleness has the ability to handle hurt without retaliating; it can absorb the blow without needing to strike back. Jesus called it \u2018turning the other cheek\u2019<\/i> (see\u00a0Matthew\u00a05:39). <\/p>\n
You say, \u2018That\u2019s not easy to do.\u2019 No, it\u2019s not; sometimes it\u2019s almost impossible. <\/p>\n
You say, \u2018To respond that way is not natural.\u2019 You\u2019re right, it is supernatural; it is the fruit of the Spirit (see\u00a0Galatians\u00a05:22\u201323). <\/p>\n
You need God\u2019s power to live this way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When someone disappoints or upsets you, what do you do? Pull out your big guns and react? Do you say, \u2018You make me so mad!\u2019? When you say that, you\u2019re admitting someone else is controlling your emotions. You\u2019re acknowledging you have given that person the power to determine your feelings and reactions. No one can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}