Morale Issues Become Moral Issues

It’s our human nature to want to be right, understood, heard, or correct. In most of our conversations or arguments, we are constantly preparing responses in our heads, pointing out flaws in the other person’s thinking, gearing up our defenses, and doing whatever we can to come out on the “right” side. A man may argue with his wife in an attempt to be right, but if it ends with her in tears and even greater distance between the two, then being right didn’t matter at all. Our desire to be correct comes from a place of pride, rather than compassion. When we switch our focus from being correct to being compassionate, it changes the way we approach conversations. Instead of speaking the truth out of anger, bitterness, resentment, or pride we speak out of love and compassion. It’s easy to speak out of anger and bitterness because we find ourselves saying the words that have been stirring in our minds for some time. It’s a lot more difficult to speak from a heart of love and compassion for the other person. To speak in compassion is to rely on the God of compassion, rather than our own strength or wisdom. Pride cares only for itself, but compassion cares for the other person. The two cannot coexist, so we will always choose one when we enter into conversations with our brothers and sisters. Jesus, on the other hand, always chose compassion. He spoke hard truth, but he did it out of deep love for his people and trust in God that the truth would ultimately be transformative. We must ask ourselves whether we can have that same trust in God when we choose to be compassionate over being correct when offering truth. Reflection/Discussion Question: What is most difficult about choosing to be compassionate over being correct?

We rarely notice we are being distracted until the deed is done and our minds and hearts are far from where they are supposed to be. One of the enemy’s most frequent battle strategies is to keep us distracted. Just as long as we are preoccupied with trivial matters, we won’t focus on engaging in the spiritual battle with the weapons of Christ. If we are distracted just enough, the enemy can keep us from the work Christ is doing in our lives. He may distract you with worries about your looks, a fractured relationship, problems around the house, lack of money, hunger, a fear of missing out on something fun, a busy schedule, comparison, small annoyances, nagging thoughts, social media, future plans, or pain. He’ll do whatever he can to keep up distracted, removing our focus from truth and moving it onto things without eternal significance. As long as we are distracted, we are vulnerable to attack. One of the most effective ways of fighting distractions is to take control of our minds. We are not a victim to our thoughts, we can actively take control of our minds. Colossians 3:1-2 says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (NIV). And Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (NIV). This kind of thinking takes continual practice, but it is worth it. The more we think in this way, the more we will begin to act this way, and the less often we will fall victim to the enemy’s distractions. Reflection/Discussion Question: What can you start doing that implements the kind of thinking Colossians 3:1-2 and Philippians 4:8 talks about?