Handling Moody & Irritated People (Overcoming Irritability Part 2)

So, in a previous blog post I shared with you how the Lord helped me recognize and overcome my irritability of others, and how it all started with loving myself. But how do I respond to others who are moody and irritated by me or others? Well...here are some thoughts.

Once I understood how my irritability stemmed from a lack of love for myself, then I was able to have grace and mercy for irritated and moody people. I began to have more of an understanding for them, instead of getting offended at them. When someone around me seemed chronically irritated or moody, my heart was moved with compassion towards them, because I recognized the root of their moodiness: self-hatred. (Read more about this in Need Help Overcoming Irritability). My reaction changed from offense to love. I began to pray that they would experience the love of God for them and learn to love themselves and see themselves how God sees them. Once you see yourself how God sees you, and you learn to love yourself, you can love others. I found the best way to help moody/irritated people, is to model the love of God and help them experience the love of God through you for them. In order to do that, you have to connect with the source of love and receive God's great love for you!

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him" 

(1 John 3:1). 

2 in 1-The Problem & The Solution

WOW...Challenged today by this. Have you ever heard the phrase, "So goes the church, goes the culture?"

Read Hosea 4:9...
'"And what the priests do, the people also do.' So now I will punish both priests and people for their wicked deeds."

I remember Sean Smith saying when he thinks about the challenges of his city and nation, he knows both the answer and the problem stare at him in the mirror.

1 Chronicles 7:14 doesn't say if the WORLD will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways then God will heal the land...it says if the people of God will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways. The responsibility is on us as believers. As a believer I feel a personal responsibility when I hear about someone committing suicide in my state. It doesn't matter if I never met them, or knew them. I feel a responsibility as a Christ follower, who has been entrusted with the power of the Holy Spirit to see spiritual strongholds like hopelessness and depression demolished, to declare freedom and see captives set free! We have that power as believers--but it takes us to believe that and operate in the authority Christ has given us.

I have heard many examples of how revival and transformation came as a result of a handful of praying people who set themselves apart to seek the Lord. I want to be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that when someone's life is in the balance, He can trust me to answer the call to pray and intercede for His intervention. I know it doesn't depend all on one person, but it depends on the Body of Christ as a whole--but the whole is made up of individual parts, who all have a part to play. But too often we alleviate ourselves of the responsibilty. What if EVERY believer began to take suicide and the souls of people personally? What if we began to pray like the eternal souls of this generation depended on us? What would that look like? And what would happen with that kind of urgency and action? What if when you see a precious person bound in addiction, instead of looking the other way, you looked at yourself, as both the problem and the solution.