GET RID OF YOUR PhD....

PULL HIM DOWN TRAIT

So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don’t drag them down by finding fault" (Romans 14:19-20, The Message). 

Appropriate brotherly relationship is important for all individuals in order to live a life of peace with your neighbours and to also have peace within you. When you are not at peace with people around you, it will be impossible to have peace within you. I remember a brother telling me how that he could not sleep for about a week just because another brother offended him by speaking unkind words to him. So the Bible urges us to commit to using "all our energy in getting along with each other". And you know, we don’t have to be best of friends to do so. 

In human relationships, the way we use words matter a lot, having grave consequences for personal and communal peace. Today, permit me to exhort you to be an encourager in the way you use words. You will build more lives and relationships that way rather than always finding fault with everything and everybody. Learn how to criticise constructively with a view to bringing out the best in the person you are criticising. I have found out that at the end of the day, most people would not reject help if the help is presented in an attractive and conciliatory manner. 

That was the manner of life that Jesus taught us. Even when He spoke harshly, it was always in love so as to get His hearers to do the right thing. On one occasion, it was reported that "all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth" (Luke 4:22). Virtually everyone who came to Jesus left challenged and encouraged in their journey towards the kingdom of God and towards doing right. The exceptions were those who appeared to have made up their minds to continue in their life of sin and hypocrisy. 

Like Christ, let your words "be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man" (Colossians 4:6). You will lose nothing by doing so. Ask the Lord God for "the tongue of the learned" that will help you to "know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary" (Isaiah 50:4). Other Bible translations (like the International Standard Version) refer to it as the "instructed tongue" that will help you to know how to "sustain the weary with words". You will gain nothing by killing the weary with your words. 

Friends, remember that you don't have to win every argument outside of a formal or official competitive debate. There never is a trophy for winning an argument against a friend or for putting your neighbour down with your words. Let people remember you for the kind words you spoke that lifted them out of despair and saved them from errors. That is the life of honour you were meant to live. Live it!