Devotional: Dealing with Difficult People

Psalms 37:1. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 
4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. 
7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.  8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

Psalm 37 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture.  It tells me how to deal with stress and stressful people.  We've all seen those books with titles like, "How to Deal With Difficult People".  Well, here in a nutshell, we have instructions for dealing with difficult people!  We don't need a full length book on this subject, we just need to do what this says. 

Often the key is how we respond to difficult people. How often do I react with harsh words or anger when someone crosses me up?  This scripture says to fret not and cease from anger.  If we took this to heart, think of how the outcome might be different in our relationship to difficult people?

This is an area that I really need to work on. It's so much easier to just react with the first thing on our tongue then to hold back and respond in a more godly way.  Lord, help us!