If we keep ourselves busy doing His thing,
we won’t have time to do our thing! We will
be so full of God’s love, there won’t be any
room for strife. That’s the key to having the
power of God manifest in our lives just as it
was manifest in Jesus’ life.

Smith Wigglesworth was an excellent example.
He went into ministry because he became
so involved in the work of God he just
didn’t have time to be a plumber anymore. He
was so full of the Spirit and so busy preaching
to folks one-on-one that he had to go into
full-time ministry.

Mr. Wigglesworth jumped onto a fellow’s
wagon one day and said, “I’m going to stay
here until you let me tell you about Jesus.” Just
to get rid of him, the fellow said, “Well, go
ahead and tell me. Then get off my wagon!”

So Mr. Wigglesworth started telling him
about how God loved him and wasn’t holding
his sins against him. After a while, tears
started flowing from the fellow’s eyes and he
said, “Pray for me, Mr. Wigglesworth. I want
to accept the Lord.” The man died two weeks
later. What would have happened to him if
someone had not been doing God’s work?

That was God’s love in action. Men, in
themselves, are not capable of that sincere
concern for total strangers. It takes God’s love
to reach out to others.

God’s love must be in your heart in abundance
for it to come out of your mouth the
way it came out of Smith Wigglesworth’s.
And the best way to be filled with the love of
God is to renew your mind to that love.

The way I renew my mind to the love of
God is to study and meditate 1 Corinthians
13:4-8, New King James Version. I read it in
the first person like this: “I suffer long and am
kind. I do not envy; I do not parade myself. I
am not puffed up. I do not behave rudely; I do
not seek my own way; I am not provoked.

I think no evil; I do not rejoice in iniquity, but I
rejoice in the truth. I bear all things, I believe
all things, hope all things and I endure all
things. I never fail.” This is a valid confession
because God is love, and I am born of God.
Therefore, I am born of love.

We’re not supposed to correct our children
in anger. Ephesians 6:4 says: “Fathers, do not
irritate and provoke your children to anger [do
not exasperate them to resentment] but rear
them [tenderly] in the training and discipline
and the counsel and admonition of the Lord”

(The Amplified Bible). And chapter 5, verse 1
says we are to “be…followers of God, as dear
children.” In other words, we are to imitate
God as children imitate their parents.

When we miss the mark, God doesn’t hit
us with a barrage of verbal abuse! Rather, He
corrects us with gentle reproof, and that’s the
way we’re to correct our children. When we’re
angry, if we’ll just stop for a few minutes and
thank the Lord, it will change the way we
discipline them.

This approach will work in any situation
where there is a temptation to tear into
someone with cruel and unkind words. When
someone crosses you on the job, at school, or
wherever, instead of letting your mouth be
filled with verbal abuse, fill it with praise to
God. He is worthy of your praise! If you are
thinking about how good God is, you can’t be
talking about how bad others are!

Many believers don’t realize it, but that
is what Jesus meant when He said we are to
take up our cross and follow Him. People have
some strange ideas about what their cross in
life is. Some think it’s sickness. Others believe
it’s poverty. Still others think that their unruly
teenagers are their cross to bear. But the only
thing you will never be rid of in this life—your
cross to bear—is unkind, hard-to-love people.

There will always be someone who will try to
provoke you. In order to stay out of strife, you’ll
have to take up the cross and follow Jesus.
How did Jesus respond to unlovely people?

He imitated His heavenly Father and
spoke the Word of God. He said, “The words
I speak are not My own. I only say what the
Father tells Me to say” (see John 8:28). And
John 3:34 tells us that because He only spoke
the Word of God, He had the Spirit in an unlimited
measure. The power of God was Jesus’
vindication in every situation, not smart-aleck
words! He didn’t use any flippant words. He
only said what the Father told Him to say.

In Ephesians 4:29-32, we find the kinds of
things the Father is telling us to say:
Let no corrupt communication proceed
out of your mouth, but that which
is good to the use of edifying, that it
may minister grace unto the hearers.

And grieve not the holy Spirit of
God, whereby ye are sealed unto the
day of redemption. Let all bitterness,
and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and
evil speaking, be put away from you,
with all malice: And be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ’s sake
hath forgiven you.

Notice the words even as. We are supposed
to imitate God no matter what the
circumstances are. We are supposed to be
acting like God, speaking His words and
doing His work.

What I couldn’t understand was why
I spoke more harshly to my family than to
anyone else. It seemed no matter how hard
I tried, I couldn’t speak a kind word to them.
I criticized Gloria’s driving so much that she
nearly refused to drive while I was with her.
And I criticized her flying until she finally
decided to just sleep and let old “bad mouth”
do all the flying. The way I spoke to my children
was no better.

I didn’t want to be so insensitive, but
I couldn’t seem to help it. I had a well developed
habit of speaking harshly and
didn’t know how to change it. One day I
realized that I could hardly remember the
last time I had said something kind to my
children. That was when I decided that I
had to change some things. But how?

I asked the Lord, “How do I change a pattern
of behavior that’s been part of me for so
long?” I knew that Ephesians 4:29 said: “Let
no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the
hearers.” Harsh words and criticism are certainly
not edifying and gracious. I was willing
to change this pattern, but I needed a replacement
for the things I was so used to saying.

I needed something more powerful that would
overcome the words of strife and criticism.
I found that alternative in Ephesians 5:3-4:
“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness,
let it not be once named among you, as
becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish
talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient:
but rather giving of thanks.”

The alternative to speaking ugly things is
thanksgiving. The New English Bible says it this
way: “No coarse, stupid, or flippant talk; these
things are out of place; you should rather be
thanking God.”

I realized I couldn’t speak harshly and
thank God at the same time. I couldn’t criticize
those around me if I had a thankful attitude
about them.

I immediately decided to put this principle
to work in my life. While rushing into
my son’s room one day, ready to lambaste him
about something he had done, I recognized
my old behavior pattern. I just stopped and
said to myself, The Word says this kind of behavior
is out of place, so I am going to stop and
thank God. I wasn’t nearly as angry after I
spent a few minutes praising and thanking
the Lord for him.

The fight is on—at every level. Strife is
separating nation from nation, brother from
sister and husband from wife. The conflict
comes in varying degrees, from minor disagreements
at the office to bomb-dropping
border disputes between nations. But one
thing is certain, if you live in this world, you’re
going to have to deal with strife! And, as a believer,
you’ll have to deal with it in your own
life—severely.

Strife isn’t something you can treat casually.
It’s a deadly enemy. Just look at what the
Word says about it. James 3:16 says where
strife is there is confusion and every evil work.
Allowing strife to go unchecked or entering
into it opens the door to every evil work. A
study of the New Testament reveals strife is
a deadly enemy that must be stopped in our
daily lives.

In fact, as a born-again child of God, you
are not only expected to avoid strife, you are
expected to be a “peacemaker” (Matthew 5:9).
But is it really possible to live in a world that’s
so full of strife without being drawn into the
conflict yourself?

That’s a question I used to ask myself a lot.
My life used to be full of turmoil and conflict.
Even as a boy, I fought over everything—my
bike, my clothes—anything. It seemed that I
was always fighting!

When I was in grade school I stood out like
a sore thumb because all the other boys wore
blue jeans and I wore corduroy knickerbockers.
So other boys made fun of me by imitating the
sound my corduroy britches made as I walked,
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.” And
all the other kids laughed at me. That always
started a fight!

It never took much provocation for me to
end up in some kind of strife with someone.
Even as an adult, I’d look for opportunities
to fight. I’d try saying something ugly in an
elevator and then watch all the women’s ears
roll up! Then I’d hope some fellow would say
something about it so that maybe I’d get to
hit him! I was pretty ornery before I made
Jesus the Lord of my life.

Even after I was born again, I could be
pretty ornery. But then I fought with my
tongue instead of my fist. I said cutting things
that packed a more powerful punch than my
fist ever had. Instead of slugging a man in the
face, I hit him in the heart, which was much
more devastating. A black eye will heal in just
a few days, but a wounded spirit will fester
and fester until someone reaches in with the
love of God to heal it.