I had to laugh at myself this morning. I was standing in front of the mirror talking to myself and saying what I should have said the other day to this person I had a little conflict with. I stopped myself and then told myself how silly this was and then told myself I wasn’t going to do that again. About 10 minutes later when my mind was drifting, I realized I was doing the same thing again. Ha
You probably never do this. Right? The funny part is that in front of the mirror you always say the perfect words in the perfect tone with the perfect facial expression and it always has the perfect result. Game over. You win. The other funny thing is that while you are working up to it and thinking about what the other person did or said and why, your mind comes up with how they planned this whole thing out so perfectly to hurt you.
Now, if we were honest with ourselves (since we are talking to ourselves,) we know that real life doesn’t happen this way. You know what I think? I think that strife is the most used tool in Satan’s arsenal and it is the one tool that we fall subject the easiest. It is also the one tool that robs us of our joy the quickest. Lastly it is the one tool that can turn a good day into a bad day without you even recognizing it is happening. Envy, strife and jealousy are Satan’s stock and trade to get us sidelined in life and to steel our peace and joy.
The bible even says in James 3:16 “where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” This is where Satan wants us to spend our time because he knows that envy, jealousy and strife eat at our soul and steels from us the peace that passes all understanding.
So like the Nike commercial, when you find yourself unconsciously talking to yourself about something someone did or said, just say no. Just tell Satan “No” I will not let you do this. You will be amazed at how much better you feel when you shut out envy, strife and jealousy from your daily life. KT
You nailed it again Keith.