How do you react? It’s a very good question. I realized a while back that how I react, or whether I react or not, is very spiritual. What is my reaction to a trigger for fear or faith? Do I let someone, something, a situation, an event, the words of others to cause a reaction in me, and then from me either in words or actions that I won’t like when I am done reacting? If one of my main goals in life is to live my life in every way that is first and foremost pleasing to God, then how I react is everything, and do I react in ways that please Him.
In Matthew 15: 10, “Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
Jesus also said, out of the heart the mouth speaks, the hands act, the feet flea, and the body gestures. We are like oranges, and when someone provokes us, we are squeezed, and what is inside ready to come our does, bursting its juices all over whatever is in front of it. And if you are unhappy with your reaction to whatever it is, and quickly want to point fingers at the trigger, be it a person or a situation, don’t do that. It doesn’t matter most of the time what the stimulus was for your poor reaction. You gave that person a win they didn’t deserve and that you didn’t want to give them. The juice in you was ready to burst out anyways. Look inside, see the plank in your own eye, make sure your heart is right and you are walking in the Holy Spirit, and His fruits, and then the juice in you will be heavenly juices, not under pressure, and can maintain the control and peace the Spirit gives you under all circumstances.
Paul said it well like this, Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
If someone is having a bad , and they say something to you to provoke you to react so that they can feel better about themselves, why do you say anything at all or react at all, when you know they are baiting you? They need a win, and might even seek you out because they know they can get one from you. Maybe they have stollen one from you in the past, and you are a reliable supply for their emptiness. A win steals your life energy, dampens your spirit, grieves the Holy Spirit in you, and rewards evil for evils sake. They do not care about you, they only care about themselves, and the anguish that they cannot solve or rest from unless they steal something from someone else to fill that void within them.
If you read the words of Jesus, and study them deeply, you will see that He talks a lot about how we react, and how important it is to not react poorly or at all when it doesn’t serve God or you well. Think of it this way. Is what you are about to say really necessary, and are you the person who needs to say it? Does it help the situation or you, and does it please God to say it? Would silence in self-control be better? Are you responding just to be heard? Would your response engage in or promote an argument? Or would your silence when provoked keep a harsh word from someone toward you from becoming one? Sometimes silence can not only speak louder than words, it can be the most important and powerful sounds that doesn’t happen or get said.
Lean on the Holy Spirit when you are triggered to react. In that quick moment, look to God and seek Him for whether you should react or not, and if so, what to say so that what comes out of you will please Him. It isn’t easy to start doing this. You will be catching yourself with words on your lips wanting so to be spoken, that don’t get said so much so it may pain you not to say therm. But if you try it, and you stay with it, I believe you will see that this fruit of the spirit, self-control, will develop and promote the Peace that He gives you, and you will like that Peace, a strong and unmovable Peace, and you will like yourself better, growing this way in the Lord.
