Devotional: Servant of the Lord---Not an Easy Job

2 Timothy 2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, 25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

This verse came to my attention when I was searching for a good verse to describe my job description as a servant of the Lord. Now, I must say that this is my job description, but it doesn't mean I have attained this goal in my life on a consistent basis.

Recently, I went through a week or two where I failed miserably at this in my homeschooling. I was uptight for no apparent reason other than that things were not going MY way. As a result, patience ran thin, gentleness was non-existent, teaching was more like trying to pound it into the student's head and meekness, well, I don't know where that was. I had to confess my sin to God and start over. When I came across this verse, I knew I had to memorize it and review it often.

More recently, I found myself in an email discussion with a man who was intent on convincing me that what I believed was wrong. He wanted to hear what I believed, yet when I told him what I believed he got angry with me. So I backed off and told him I would be content to listen to what he had to say and I would not say what I believed. That made him angry too. So I struggled with how to put this verse into practice.

How do you not strive with an angry man who is angry no matter what you do? Does this mean you continue to share what you believe God's Word teaches and let them continue to trample it under foot? I don't think so. The Bible says, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." (Matthew 7:6)

I had to make a decision. I was spending a lot of time trying to answer his questions. My answers then would make him angry. And if I tried just asking him questions about what he believed and not tell him what I believed, then he still got angry anyway. Clearly, I was casting my pearls before a swine and he was trampling them under his feet, and then turning again and rending me with his anger. In cases like this, one must balance gentleness with firmness. He had used deception on more than one occasion during our email exchanges. It was time I let him know that I knew what he was doing and our conversations were going to end.

It's tough to use tough love, but sometimes that is the only way a person can be handled. I wrote him an email pointing out all the deceptions and lies he had used on me, and his unreasonable anger. I thanked him for allowing me to be heard and let him know that he would not hear from me again. Then I blocked his emails from my inbox and deleted his address from my address book so I would not be tempted to be drawn into another conversation with him. He was clearly a tool of Satan in my life to cause me stress and keep me from God-given responsibilities I should have been doing.

Sometimes we have to take strong measures in our lives and with others. It's a balancing act that is tough to perform at times. Balancing gentleness with tough love is a challenge. It takes wisdom from God to know where the line should be drawn.

Are there areas in your life where you fall short of the job description? Are there areas where people in your life need some tough love and you have a balancing act to perform? Ask God for wisdom to know what to do about it and courage to take action.