Practice: Resolving Disagreements
Confront- 1. To stand facing; to face; to stand in front of. 2. To stand in direct opposition to; to meet in hostility; to oppose. Strength matched with strength, and power; confronted power. 3. To set face to face; to bring into the presence of, as an accused person and a witness, in court, for examination and discovery of the truth; followed by with; as, the witness was confronted with the accused.
Conflict- 1. A fighting or struggling for mastery; a combat; a battle; a striving to oppose or overcome; contention; strife; controversy. 2. To contend; to fight; strive or struggle to resist and overcome; as a man should conflict with in hope of a might great difficulties, in hope of a mighty reward.
Beloved, I am privileged to have this blog and share with you God’s loving discipline of me. Confronting conflict is a skill the body of Christ needs training in, so as to keep harmony of our spirits within our homes, churches and places of work. Disharmony within these institutions comes with unresolved disagreements between two people or more persons. Unresolved disagreements gives the devil a foothold in the body of Christ fostering dysfunctional churches, homes and relationships.
We are children of the Most High God and we are to confront conflicts so as to stay in the light of the Truth and deny bitterness her hiding cave.
Matt. 18:15-17 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.”
Do these sayings seem familiar?
“Great, I’ll get to show my husband his wayward ways and God will show me as the pious, innocent and sacrificial wife.”
“I’ll tell my boss a thing or two about that unfair schedule! Who does she think she is to take another weekend off?”
“Boy! That pastor’s sermon was all over the place! No wonder the membership count is down. I better wake him up!”
Resolving disagreements requires confronting a conflict and purposefully working with the other person on a resolution. Now confronting (coming face to face) a conflict (contentions or struggles) is a two way street; the accuser is bound according to Scripture to meet the accused face to face; so that the accused can state their side to the accuser.
Lev. 19:17-18 ‘You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of the people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.’
One day I asked my husband for his attention about areas of our marriage that I could not allow to slide anymore. My husband heard me and then my hubby got the notepad that he uses to make the grocery and to-do lists on; and read off his list of recent irritations with me. Needless to tell you I was shocked! I could not blow off this confrontation when I was the one who brought it forth first! I was convicted as my husband’s list of irritations were justified and I had to agree to make changes if he was going to make changes. Now there were things on our lists of irritations with the other that we had to “agree to disagree” about and not hold against each other. We owe it to each other as believers to be completely honest in our relationships about who and what we are deep inside. We must commit to make amends when we have wronged another and be willing to love another in spite of not coming to agreements on everything.
Be blessed Beloved
Praying that you will hear God’s direction in this. Today, I made the start of my own blog page. I’ve been hearing the word “write” for a very long time and this is a step forward…even if it’s 6:45AM on a Sunday morning.
Praying that you will hear God’s direction in this. I started my first blog this AM at 6:45….it is not written yet but I’ve been hearing the LORD say “Write” for a long time now and this is a first step.