Mar 6, 2021 … Poking the Badger

Berry Patch Devotions in 2020 - Day 65 

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...  Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from Tim McGraw singing … Always Be Humble and Kind…  poignantly singing of how we should avoid anger and bitterness … always living to be humble and kind. 

Poking the badger to anger ... 

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Highlight Passage:  1Thessalonians 4:11 [ESV] ... 

11 … and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, …

… Always best to avoid angering others.     

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Highlight Passage [Context]: …   1Thessalonians 4:9-12 [ESV] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Paul teaches that minding one’s own business will prevent provoking anger and controversy among others. 

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Reference Passage: … Proverbs :15:1, 17:1 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK … 

…  God’s wisdom, thru Solomon, on advice to avoid provoking anger and strife in others. 

Reference Passage: … Ecclesiastes 4:6 [ESV] … 

6 Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.  

…  Again, Solomon gives solid, Godly, teaching about avoiding the ire of others.    

Reference Passage: … 1Timothy 5:13 [ESV] …  

13 Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.

…  God, thru Paul, advises Timothy (and us) to avoid being gossips and busybodies, stirring up the anger of others. 

Reference Passage: … 1Peter 2:1 [ESV] … 

1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.   

… Peter also advices fellow Christians to avoid provoking others to anger with malice, deceit, and hypocrisy.  

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, David H Roper, AT THIS LINK …   relates of encountering a badger building a nest in the wild and stupidly poking the creature which predictably turned in anger (see photo), causing the author to run away from the dangerous badger.  

The ODB story is a good picture of how we can - and should - avoid provoking others to anger and bitterness by poking their sensibilities with provoking words or actions which cause anger or strife in our relationships.  So, I pray we all take Tim McGraw’s musical advice above and do all we can to be humble and kind to others today. Because if we do, as the Scriptures above attest, we will avoid confrontations which produce anger and strife and we will all live together more readily in harmony.   

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for following Your model to always be humble and kind. 

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, … to do all we can today to avoid provoking the ire and anger of others with prideful words or actions.   … Amen 

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Blogger Note:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.