Just Drop It!

Proverbs 17:14 Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

I can feel it, coming in the air tonight
Oh lord
I’ve been waiting for this moment, for all my life
Oh Lord

You can feel when an argument is getting ready to happen. It’s like a storm cloud rising in your chest. There is a little voice in your head saying, ‘run for shelter’ but your need to be right makes you keep running into the storm. The best way to end an argument is to recognize the warning signs before it even gets to that point and drop it.

The writer of Proverbs says that arguing is like breaching a dam. Breaching is a breaking up or disruption of friendly relations. It’s like taking a sledgehammer and knocking a hole in the wall of a dam. Nobody wins in an argument, everybody gets flooded.

He who loves quarreling loves sin. Proverbs 17:19 Arguing is becoming defensive. When you put up a fence or a wall you invite destruction. The higher the wall the more people want to attack it. “But if I don’t become defensive, then they will win.” When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord he makes even his enemies at peace with him. It’s more important to be in right relationship with God and others than it is to win an argument. Just drop it!

In the movie Fearless, Jet Li’s character watches his father as a little boy preparing for a fight. His father is getting ready to go settle a dispute with a rival the old fashioned way. They are using martial arts to settle it once and for all. The father tells the son to stay at home because he doesn’t want him to see this violence. The boy sneaks away and right as the father is getting ready to issue the deathblow he catches the eye of his son and stops inches of the man only to be defeated by the man. Saving his son’s innocence was more important than winning.

Even though you could issue a death blow with your words because you have the knowledge or information which could render your opponent speechless and humiliated, what’s the use when all you do is ill a friendship?! Drop it!

Proverbs 17:27 a man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even tempered.

1. You’re not weak for dropping it.
2. There is wisdom in restraint.
3. Overcome evil with good; do not be overcome with evil.

Dear God control my temper and help me to be a repairer of the breach. Today, I give up my right to be right, so that there may be peace. It’s not about me but about peace and reconciliation. I’m dropping it.

In Jesus Name,

Amen