Overcoming Difficulties That Disturb Your Peace Series

Where do we see this in the Christmas story?

We see it in the second journey that Joseph and Mary had to make - the journey into Egypt.

In Matthew’s account of Christ’s birth he mentions how Joseph and Mary had to flee Judea for Egypt because of Herod’s threat on the baby’s life.

"After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ’Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,’ the angel said. ’Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’" Matthew 2:13 (NLT)

Herod was a pitiful person. Sadly there are a lot of paranoid and insecure people like him in the world today.

There are some DIFFICULT PEOPLE similar to Herod in your life. You work with some. Some live in your neighborhood. You meet some out on the highway. Some of your relatives are DIFFICULT PEOPLE. Some of you even live with some DIFFICULT PEOPLE. They can really do a number on your peace of mind.

What can you do about it? You say, "well I can leave town like Joseph and Mary did."

That’s not really the answer the Bible is trying to give us. Most of the DIFFICULT PEOPLE in our lives are not trying to kill us. If you have somebody trying to kill you then by all means run.

The point we need to see from the example of Joseph and Mary is this: they followed God’s instructions.

What you and I need to do with DIFFICULT PEOPLE in our lives is to follow God’s instructions. We know God’s instructions with DIFFICULT PEOPLE. We just don’t like following them sometimes.

When people are mean to us we need to love and forgive them anyway. We are to pray for them and live a good example in response to their ill intentions toward us. We don’t have to sanction their bad behavior but we do have to love them. The Bible makes that very clear. We’ve covered that plenty of times here at Pathway.

Take some of the things Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.

"You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow."

God certainly knew what He was doing in choosing Joseph and Mary to raise Jesus. Through the whole Christmas story you see them struggling, first with the weight of handling the news of the virgin birth, and then the wickedness of Herod, but you always see them choosing to follow God’s instructions - always ready to do His will!

God says to Joseph, "Take Mary to be your wife, even though she’s pregnant and you know you’re not the baby’s daddy." And Joseph says, "God if you say so it’s good enough for me."

The serious problems you and I get into in life will not come from the DIFFICULT PEOPLE in our lives. Our serious problems will come when we do our own thing, when we go our own way and make selfish choices. If you want to have peace you don’t have to run from DIFFICULT PEOPLE – you just have to follow God’s instructions.