GPS Guide – August 8, 2019
DISAGREEMENT
Thursday
Read: James 1:19-20, 3:7-10
“19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ” (NIV James 1:19-20)
Study: The apostle James, Jesus’ brother, found a painful irony in one way people use words. “With [our tongue] we both bless the Lord and Father and curse human beings made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth,” he wrote. Have you ever become friends with a person, then found that you hold different political opinions, and realized that the degrading labels you’ve used for “those people” may not be true, at least in the case of your friend? Do you, like James, find it sad to bless God and then curse people God loves and for whom Jesus died? How could you change your own speech to contribute to “the healing of our nation”?
Pray: Lord God, remind me that people who disagree with me politically ultimately came, like me, from your creative heart. Help me to move toward seeing them as you see them. Amen.