Sunday, Touchiness

Do we need to develop Holy Indifference?

A person's wisdom yields patience; it is to one's glory to overlook an offense---Proverbs 19:11

TOUCHINESS. A body part that is injured or inflamed responds with instant recoil when touched. The Hebrew word for patience here means a relaxed face rather than one that instantly snarls when provoked. When people say something you don't like, do you shoot right back? Or do you slow your response and act rather than react? What is so touchy about us? We feel we must defend our glory or honor. It is our ego that is so sensitive.

This should tell us something.  We don't notice body parts unless there is something wrong with them. We don't say, ' My elbows are working great today!' But the ego calls attention to itself every minute.  Sin has distorted our identity, the very basis of our sense of self.  We need saving, repairing grace. If our egos were working properly, we would know that true glory  is to let a slight or irritation go without paying back.  Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.'(Luke 23:34) That is real glory.

Do you fairly easily feel hurt, slighted, and put down, and do you take criticism very hard?

 

Prayer:  Lord, today I was very touchy with someone.  Yes I was tired and stressed out over many things. But so what? You were under far greater stress and never shot back an angry word. Let me wonder and praise you for your patience until it begins to grow in me.  Amen.

 

Excerpt from  God's Wisdom for Navigating Life, A Year if Daily Devotions in the Book of Proverbs, page 133

Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller.