Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
With a new look
Respond in Love
No matter what anyone does to you or says to you, your response should be one which portrays the love of God. Sometimes someone might say something negative to you; it is something said against you. But the person who said it was not very knowledgeable about the power of words. Now, your response could be the difference between spiritual life and death in him. If you respond with a harsh attitude and possible inappropriate words you could destroy his desire to grow, spiritually, with you as his teacher. But if you love on him and show the love of God in your attitude and use the appropriate words you may encourage him to grow and learn.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof,” (Proverbs 18:21 King James Version).
Your word could make all the difference. By what you say, the power of your tongue—the words of your mouth, you could rob the person whom you are talking to or responding to from true life in Jesus. Or, with the right words delivered with the right attitude you could inspire him or her to seek out more learning, gain understanding and wisdom.
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And, before you respond weather positively or not, you need to remember that what you say to them you are saying to Jesus because He said,
“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me,” (Matthew 25:40 King James Version).
It’s what God says about me, what I can do, what He wants me to do, that makes the difference. And He says I can do what I am doing when I am taking His lead and doing it. So, my response to people when they say I can’t do something is, silence and a smile. When someone criticizes something that I just did or me personally, my response is prayer in tongues and maybe a grin.
“Your very words will be used as evidence against you, and your words will declare you either innocent or guilty,” (Matthew 12:37 The Passion Translation).
But, when you say the word to that person, when you make your response, you are not just saying it to them and to Jesus; you’re also saying it to yourself.
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So, before you give your response to what he said or did to you put yourself in his place; picture you speaking to you. Now how would you respond to you if you did whatever it was to yourself?
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This is definitely a job for patience, it has been defined as the ability to keep your cool (the actual definition from the Bible doesn’t use those words). When a new believer comes at you and says or does something that hurts you your very first instinct would be to blow him away, your second would be to blow him away with the word of God. You may have to hold your peace for a long time before you say anything.
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This actually happened to me, I’ll tell you what I did. I was driving a brother to a town 30 miles away from my house and we were talking. Then our conversation moved toward politics and he said something about a friend that I didn’t like. I could have said, Now, you know that’s not true. I could have slammed the car to a stop, told him to get out, and left him on the side of the road and drove back home. I could have, but I didn’t. I knew that it was satan using him to goad me so I simply let it drop, said nothing and just kept driving.
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People have told me that I couldn’t write; now I have umpteen books published. People told me that I couldn’t preach or go on TV; now, I preach on Youtube (well, I was on TV but with TV it cost a lot and the coverage isn’t what it is on Youtube, which is free). What people say about me really doesn’t make a difference to me; but,
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have said it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have said it unto me,” (same verb with word change).
Many still don’t realize it, but when you speak to someone you are doing something to him. Therefore, for clarity, let’s quote the scripture again with the word said instead of done.