Life’s Little Irritations
I know this post is a little long, but will you have a conversation with me about life’s little irritations?
I was just listening to a preacher, a well-known preacher, talking about standing firm. With the armor of God, on us— the whole armor of God. And to be able to stand and to fight the spiritual warfare. But it left me with some questions.
What did he mean exactly by spiritual warfare in my daily life? I’m not in any position to take on the enemy. Nothing extraordinary happens in my life. What about you? Do you feel like you are fighting a war? And why should we be prepared?
The Bible tells us that our enemy never tires and never gives up in his purpose, his goal to destroy us.
Ok. Got that. But how does he go about destroying my life? How is it that the devil can get at us? Maybe we aren’t aware of his tactics.
You know where I think the battle is? It is in the little things. Life’s little irritations. Yes, God allows certain things to happen, occur in our lives to test us, to try us, to shape us and to let us know what we are capable of. Why? So we will cling to Him more closely. So we will seek His face, wanting Him to do His will in us which is to conform us to the image of His Son.
Some of life’s little irritations
- Maybe it is having a slow driver in front of us when we are running late. Oh yeah, what does that do to us? Uhuh…
- Maybe your spouse isn’t doing what you want them to do. Your husband isn’t doing what you want. Maybe your wife isn’t all you had hoped for. Life’s little irritations.
- What about when you are fixing something and the tool you are using breaks. Oh yeah. Life’s happy moments, right?
- What about when you are just not feeling well? Maybe you have a migraine. I know what that is about. How does that affect us?
- When the child runs through the house with muddy feet. Hmmm, what about that?
- What about when you forget what you were cooking and you burn dinner? I know what that is about. One day I burned three different things because I kept getting side-tracked and forgetting what I was doing. Can you believe that?
- What about when you just can’t get enough sleep. I know about that. What about when you have a newborn? Seem like when mine were newborns all I wanted was sleep.
So what do I do? Do I get angry? Or do I allow God to live through me with His grace, patience, and joy?
Our reaction to life’s little irritations
How we react, I think, is where the battle is. That is where we show who we are, in our reactions. Not the things that we conscientiously do so much as how we react.
So what about these life’s little irritations. What do they cause? Do they bring glory to His name? Does our daily life bring honor to His name?
What do we do? How do we react? Do we decide it’s my right to get angry or irritable, my right to complain? Hmmm…
Do you know that we are God’s? If we are born again we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So how do these little irritations reveal God in us in our ordinary lives? Because our life is really very ordinary. Everyone’s life is ordinary. Even big stars, big ministers, etc. still go home to ordinary life with their kids, spouse, whoever they live with. They still have an ordinary life. The biggest part of our life is ordinary. So it is there where the battle is. In our ordinary lives where we make no big decisions.
It is in the ordinary issues of life where the devil gets us. If we are not on guard, knowing he is about destroying us we will get tripped up. But if we consciously surrender our lives to God, allow Him to live through us, and set ourselves aside as dead and raised from the dead (which is what we are) we will see that we don’t have the right to be irritable.
No right to complain, get irritable, get angry, or whine.
Why we react badly with life’s little irritations?
When we do get upset it is because we think at that moment, without consciously thinking it, that God doesn’t care. He isn’t nearby and He isn’t there to help us. So we have to do something about the situation. By ourselves.
Whether it is an irritating child, blocking traffic, an unexpected bill. We complain. We get irritable, angry, worry. We get fearful. We strike out with angry, complaining words. We try to control. We are saying God doesn’t care about us. When something happens we are startled. What do I do? What shall I do? I don’t know what to do.
Take a deep breath count to 30 and give God a chance. Put up that shield of faith. Trust Him.
Allow Him to speak through you or me, love through us, give us clear wisdom in any situation, bathe our heart with His love, knowing that our faith is the victory.
Prepared for life’s little irritations
Our faith is where the victory is in the battle.
Faith. Trust in Him. Life’s little irritations will become nothing. They will become little blips because we have faith in God. It has to be an active faith, yielding faith, or we slide back to our default setting of natural resources—natural way of thinking. For some it is not too bad, for others it is bad. However, it is still natural. It is not God living through us.
Life’s little irritation – let’s not discount them. It is where life happens. It is not the big battles. We are kind of ready for those. It is the little things that trip us up. Often, we eventually get discouraged and give up.
That is where the battle is. When people see you at peace and kindhearted and gentle when things go bad, that is when you know it is not the big things, it is the everyday things, day after day…reacting to life’s little irritations. Let’s let God live through us.
Prove who He is. Our lives can bring honor to Him instead of shame, embarrassment, dishonor. Remember, God lives through us. Every time something happens, choose to yield to Him. Let’s have a Monday morning faith.
Allow the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of the Spirit in us so we will have that fruit to give to others.
Words to light your path
Father, help us to look to You in every ordinary situation, every irritation. Live through us enabling us to honor You with our lives.
