Thursday 15 June 2017

Yielding pacifies

If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences. - Ecclesiastes 10:4

Before I get started let me assure you all that I understand the need to stand and fight and not be moved and never to yield to wrong or sin or the forces of evil.

But, there are times in our every day lives when we need to acknowledge that there is a place to yield and watch yielding bring about peace. Don’t get too excited, Solomon says, when you have problems with the government. Giving in can pacify great offences.

Sometimes the best thing we can do when people treat us unfairly is just to let it go. Here it is the light of a ruler rises up to oppose the people, but I think the application is that we need to carefully choose our battles. We don’t need to fight about everything. That concept seems to be forgotten in 2017 when people, including God’s people, seem to be ready to fight at the drop of a hat over sports or politics or smartphone choices or what kind of tea to drink (though I don’t understand anyone who doesn’t think Lyons Gold is the best tea in the world).

Sometimes we just need to choice not to take offence or be bothered and yield so that there will peace and we can move on to more important things.

No comments: