Dealing With Difficult People.

February 2, 2025  ||  Ecclesiastes 4:10-12

7 Ways To Grow With Difficult People.

1. Recognize You Are The Most Difficult Person You Know.

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… 

Romans 3:23 [NIV]

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

James 4:1 [NIV]

2. Choose To Take A Posture Of Grace.

4 Are you unaware that God’s [goodness] leads you to repentance [that is, to change your inner self, your old way of thinking — seek His purpose for your life]?

Romans 2:4 [AMP]

13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Colossians 3:13 [NLT]

3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” 6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. 7 So when they continued asking Him, He [f]raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

John 8:3-8 [NKJV]

1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

Galatians 6:1 [NIV]

3. Let God Use People To Grow Your Emotional Capacity.

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Romans 12:18 [NIV]

7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:7 [NKJV]

19 Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

James 1:19 [NIV]

13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.

Job 2:13 [NLT]

3 Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:3 [NLT]

4. Spiritually Discern The Wisdom You Need.

4 Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are. 5 Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools, or they will become wise in their own estimation.

Proverbs 26:4-5 [NLT]

9 “So give Your servant a discerning heart to govern Your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

1 Kings 3:9 [NIV]

1 Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John

John 4:1 [NLT]

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7 [NLT]

5. Respond - Don’t React - To People.

1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:1 [NIV] 

6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Colossians 4:6 [NIV]

27 Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, And he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.

Proverbs 26:27 [NKJV]

18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:18-21 [NIV]

6. Set Clear Boundaries. 

8 Whoever digs a pit may fall into it; whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.

Ecclesiastes 10:8 [NIV]

8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8 [NKJV]

37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

Matthew 5:37 [NKJV]

7. Acknowledge And Process Relational Grief To Embrace God’s Gift Of Forgiveness.

6 In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears.

Psalm 18:6 [NIV]

15 [Judas] asked, “What will you give me if I hand Jesus over to you?” So they counted out 30 silver coins for him. 16 From then on, Judas watched for the right time to hand Jesus over to them.

Matthew 26:15-16 [NIRV]

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Matthew 27:46 [NLT]

34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Luke 23:34 [NIV]

14 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. 15 You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message. 16 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 17 But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.

2 Timothy 4:14-17 [NIV]