BROADCASTS.com

WINNING WITH THE WORD by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God's principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God's manual for life. AN INVITATION TO YOU: To follow this blog, click here.   If this blog has blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! ______________________________________ Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below on the PODCAST LINK to today's blog post: PODCAST: "DEALING WITH THE SPIRIT OF STRIFE " by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio ______________________________________   http://maryanndiorio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WWW.Podcast-9.The-Spirit-of-Strife.mp3   Are you upset with someone today? Have you just had a big fight with your spouse, your child, or your mother? Is there a person at work with whom you just can't get along? If so, then you can be sure that the spirit of strife has crept into your life. Today I'm going to show you how you can stop being upset and start being happy.  I'm going to show you how to deal with the spirit of strife and create positive, win-win relationships with all of the people in your life. Strife is one of the key causes of relationship problems. In fact, strife is responsible for the breakup of marriages, families, friendships, and churches.  What is strife?   Webster defines strife as bitter, sometimes violent, conflict or dissension; an exertion or contention for superiority. I find it especially significant that Webster describes strife as "contention for superiority." What he is saying is that contention, which is another word for strife, arises out of a desire for superiority. Superiority here means thinking of yourself and your needs as more important than the other person and his needs.  Another word for superiority is pride. Interestingly, the Bible, God's manual for man, also relates strife to pride. Proverbs 13: 10 says, "By pride comes nothing but strife." This verse tells us that in every instance of strife--in other words, in every fight you have with your spouse, in every argument you have with your children, in every verbal outburst you have with your co-worker--there is always pride involved. If both of you are shouting, then more than likely, there is pride on both sides. Well, you may be wondering, what's so bad about that? A little clearing of the air once in a while is good for you. If, by "clearing the air" you mean that two people in a relationship need to make sure they are communicating clearly, I agree with you. But strife is not the way to do it. In fact, strife never clears the air. Strife pollutes it even more. You see, strife worms its way into a relationship, destroying the very foundations of that relationship. Strife's goal is not to promote better communication. Strife's immediate goal is to destroy communication, and its ultimate goal is to destroy the relationship.  Let's look at seven causes of strife as described in the Bible: Cause #1:  Anger. Anger is a chief cause of strife. The Bible has a lot to say about anger. There is a kind of anger that is not sin. This is righteous anger, anger that is directed at evil. For example, it is right to be angry at the evil of abortion. But the anger we're talking about here is anger that wants to hurt. That wants to get revenge. That wants its own way. This kind of anger leads to strife, and strife, as we will see later, leads to every evil thing. Proverbs 15: 18 says, "A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger allays contention." Again, in Proverbs 29: 22, we read, "An angry man stirs up strife." Are you angry today? Is there a fire of rage boiling inside of you because of something someone did to you? If so, you need to deal with that anger because if you don't, it will turn against you and destroy you.  Anger implies an assumption of personal rights,