Creflo Dollar - The Benefits of a Calm Disposition - Part 1
And if you have your Bibles go with into Proverbs chapter 17, verse 22 through 28, Proverbs 17:22 through 28. Now, I'm gonna go ahead and establish what we're gonna talk about. Very unusual subject, but it's something I think we need to hear about, something that I can give testimony to in my own life. And I don't know if I've ever taught on this before, but we're gonna talk about the benefits of a calm disposition. The benefits of a calm disposition. Now, this goes with our series on dealing with emotional maturity. And the reason why I'm taking my time with this is because when dealing with emotional maturity, you have to begin to recognize just some real basic practical things that are gonna help you in your everyday life.
This is not one of those things that you can get so spiritually deep about and not really face up to the things that'll happen every day, the different attacks you'll have emotionally every day, the challenges you'll have with not allowing your emotions to rule your life or to make sure that you are in control of your emotions. God gave us emotions, but he never meant for us to allow those emotions to govern our lives. And so, what's happening in the world today is you have a whole lot of people that are just out of control where their emotions are concerned. No emotional maturity, just kind of let them do whatever they wanna do, and in doing so we end up allowing them to lead our lives, versus us leading those emotions to do what need to be done.
And so, we've been talking about locating the different paths and to locate the symptoms that will let you know that you are actually maturing emotionally. If Christians can really get a hold of this, just for a moment, just don't act spiritually as deep, and just realize that, I tell you what, the devil's got your emotions under attack and how you can translate what you're learning, spiritually speaking, into maturity, where your emotions are concerned, then you're gonna demonstrate a better character and begin to demonstrate some fruit. So, when you are emotionally mature, then you have a calm disposition.
And so, emotionally mature people, they do get mad, okay? And then, see, that's what you...I don't want you to automatically just rule out the human stuff that happens, sitting up here like you don't ever get mad. They do get mad, but they do not let the emotion dictate the response. The Bible says, "Be ye angry, but sin not," don't allow the emotion to dictate the response. Emotionally mature people who have this calm disposition, they aim to have a clear mind with the goal of having rationality dictate how to effectively deal with a situation and also to see all of the available options to come to a successful resolution in your life. In other words, you can keep your emotions under control by taking on a calm disposition. And then, when you take on a calm disposition, then, you know, you don't allow those emotions to dictate you into a place where you just don't wanna be.
So, calmness can literally be a weapon that you use against the emotions that just wanna just go off. These people who have a calm disposition, they know that when emotions override rationality, clearness of thought will get blurred up and it can limit the options for dealing effectively with those situations that show up in your life. And so, I wanna talk about the benefit of being calm, the benefit of grabbing your emotions and doing like I just did recently, just praying tongues as loud as I could while I was in the car. It's the thing where you're looking for an answer and, really, the only, you know tongues is good, but I mean, you're letting her rip.
Just thank God ain't nobody in the car with you because you're praying in tongues loud and thank God for the Holy Spirit. But I wanna start off with this as we look at the benefits of this. Let's look in Proverbs 17:22 to 28 in NLT and just kind of recognize this because I believe calmness is the way we show that we trust God. I believe that calmness is a way that we show that we trust God. And now I got a hold of speaking to yourself in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, because, boy, when you got things going on and you just really wanna just let it rip, calmness just shows you, you know, "God, I trust you. I'm gonna be calm," all right?
And so, this is very interesting, here in verse 22. I'm gonna read through verse 28. He says, "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength". And he says, "The wicked takes secret bribes to pervert the course of justice. Sensible people keep their eyes glued on wisdom, but a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth. Foolish children bring grief to their father and bitterness to the one who gave birth to them. It is wrong to punish the godly for being good or to flog leaders for being honest. A truly wise person uses few words; a person with understanding is even-tempered. Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouth shut, they seem intelligent".
So he's saying to us what James has said, if a man can control his mouth, his tongue, he can control his whole body. And, basically, here he's saying, "In the midst of all these things that can happen, remain calm". He even speaks to the parents. He says, you know, "If you've got a son and he's bringing shame to you, remain calm, remain calm, because you prove not only that you trust me, but you're gonna open door for amazing things to take place". So in this world that is often chaotic and stressful, it's easy to become anxious and overwhelmed and even angry.
Look at this in Psalms 37, verse 8, and that's a reality where we live, even as Christians. Anxiety is a reality that'll knock on the door. Feeling overwhelmed is something that will knock on the door. And also anger is something that will knock on the door. All of these things are designed to get you out of a calm disposition. I mean, I've seen it in my life all of these years and I'm telling you, if I engage calmness, it normally works out well. And then sometimes I don't wanna be calm, okay? But it doesn't work out as good as it would have if I would, and so I started looking at this and maybe there's something to this, maybe there's something going on. My wife told me last night, she says, "I'm proud of you". I'm like, "Don't be too proud too quick because there might be something that come up tomorrow," you know.
And there's always a choice to do it until you start looking at... there's an obvious difference here when a calm disposition can come show up. And then maybe you gotta go somewhere, maybe you need to go in the woods, maybe you need to go on a drive or something like that. He says, "A man that keeps silent," he said, "he seems to be intelligent". Because sometimes you can show your ignorance when you open your mouth, amen? But look what he says here, verse 8, he says, "Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper, it only leads to harm". What is he saying here? "Take that calm disposition. You'll have a choice, always, to go one way or the other way," and he's encouraging us to take that calm disposition.
Now, this is absolutely going to be evidence of emotional maturity. You know, one of the things I'm using now is when I want to allow my emotions to take over, one of the things I'm using now, is I say to myself, "No, I am more emotionally mature now than I was," and it reminds me that emotionally mature Christians, they check their emotions and they choose this disposition of being calm. And so, we wanna examine the reasons why a calm disposition is beneficial and we wanna do it by the Word of God, so let me just, I like list. I wanna give you some things, I love checklists. Sometimes when I got a busy day, I make a list and check it out, make sure I take care of everything. Well, I wanna give you a checklist so that you can begin to walk in the benefits of a calm disposition.
Number one, Philippians chapter 4, and I'll study tonight out of the NLT. Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 and 7, here's the first benefit. Calmness promotes clarity of mind. My God. Calmness promotes clarity of mind. There've been times in my life where I lost it so bad, I couldn't see nothing but red and I couldn't think. If you asked me my name, I couldn't even tell you my name, because calmness promotes something that we need and that's clarity of mind.
Philippians 4:6 says it like this. "Don't worry about anything," you gotta understand, even when you're worried, you're not in a place of calmness, okay. Worry is negative meditation on the wrong things. He said, "Don't worry about anything; instead," all right, here's the choice now. "Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has". Basically, what he is saying is, "You know what? Take that calm position, all right, and pray. Take that calm disposition and pray. Don't worry about anything because worry, it leads to anxiety, it leads to, it's fear based. All of these things that are happening that eventually will begin to rob you out of that place of calmness. Instead," and this is what I was saying at the beginning of this message, "pray".
I knew that prayer has the potential or, I won't even say potential, it has the ability to bring calmness in your life, and especially praying in tongues. Because when you mad, I don't know how to pray in English good when I'm mad. But tongue seems like that's the right language to pray in because you know you ain't cussing, but it's the second best thing to cuss some folks out, you know? You get up there, you know. And I don't know how much of that gets to heaven, but I know it calms me down, it calms me down and gets me back into that place where I have a clarity of mind.
So number one, calmness promotes clarity of mind. Number two, calmness strengthens relationships. Yeah, calmness strengthens relationships. I don't know how many of you are married or something, but, you know, something comes up and you have a tendency to just kind of go off, you won't remain calm, and that relationship is not strengthened because you allow your emotions to go off. James chapter 1:19 and 20 in the NLT says this and I do believe it strengthens relationship. He says, "Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry".
What is he saying? "Here are the things you need to do to maintain that position of calmness, all right? Be slow to speak, be quick to hear, and be slow to anger". Those are, that's an excellent, excellent formula or remedy for remaining calm. It says it's not gonna be better in any relationship if you avoid this situation here. And verse 20 says, "Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires". So, calmness is gonna help you to stay away from or to move out of the position of human anger. It took me a minute to realize this. I'm talking about even as somebody in the ministry, you know. Sometimes we think we have a right to let our emotions go off, we have a right to do this or to do that. And practicing calmness is a challenge that you need to accept. But there is amazing results that comes when you choose the benefits of a calm disposition.
Number three, calmness, this is cool, it fosters creativity and productivity. Creativity and productivity. You're not gonna be as creative as you can be, neither will you be as productive as you can be, out of the position of being calm. And this is what the devil's gonna use. If he can distract you through anger and just being bothered and just being irritated, at the same time, he is stopping the creativity that comes from God through you. He is stopping the productivity that comes from God through you from taking place. I met with my staff, well, my pastors yesterday and we talked about, you know, I'm like, "Hey, man, it's time to get a new team. It's time to get a team with energy so we can go to the rest of the way, the next 30, 40 years".
And I just, you know, said, "There are three words that will define what I am looking for in this team. It is loyalty, it is creativity, and it is innovations". And loyalty is not just commitment, that's part of it, loyalty is the willingness to change your plans for what you believe in and who you believe in, and that's something that lacks so big time in today's society. Ain't nobody changing their plans for nobody. This is about me, what? And creativity and productivity, and even innovation, is gonna come from a calm disposition. It's gonna come because you fight to remain in a place where what God has for our lives can get to us and begin to function through us.
Psalms 46 is very interesting, verse 10. Psalms 46. The calmness fostering creativity and productivity. He says here, "Be still," this is the instruction that God would give. He said, "Be still, and know". "Be still, and know that I am God"! You know what he's saying? "Dude, you're all over the place. You got business in your head. There's just too much activity, too much noise, in your soul and in your mind," and what we need to take hold of, you know what, I need to be still. I need to be still and know what God has got. I need to calm down and know that God is God. I know God. I know what he's already done in my life. I already have proof of his power in my life. Let me chill out, let me move in what I call ease. God, give me a spirit of ease in my life.
And there's just certain things, you know, I mean, I was talking to the Lord about it this morning. I said, "I know what I got to do to achieve a higher level of calmness and to achieve a higher level of stress". I said, "I know what I got to do". I said, "I'm just gonna need you to help me to do it". And that's something that you should begin to venture into, something that you should begin to talk to God about. You know, I hope you're getting a hold of the fact that I'm trying to teach you that we go down, we're going, this is a journey, okay? This is a journey. This is not something that I'm expecting for you to be just like that by next week. It's a journey. And I'm pretty cool knowing that you start the journey, okay? And on a journey, sometimes you gotta stop for gas, you need a refill.
Sometimes on a journey you need a tune up. Sometime on a journey, man, you need to check the red lights that are on in it. You need to check yourself sometime on it. It's a journey and this is what God has always intended for it to be: a journey. Religion tells you you need to be just like this right now, perfect right now, or, and here's the fear-based motivation, or you're going to hell. It's not true. You got preachers arguing about what sends people to hell. I'm gonna tell you, the only thing that sends people of hell is rejecting Jesus, okay? Everything else is a journey. And guess what?
Now that you made Jesus the Lord of your life and you've made reservations at the Holy Ghost Hotel, it might be the day he comes back, and you're in the midst of the journey and that day wasn't too good, that ain't gonna stop you from getting in heaven. He just gonna pick you up in the middle of the journey, finish it, and then bring you on home to do what needs to be done. It's just people that, they're just not seeing how this thing works. I'm on a journey, you're on a journey.
We woke up this morning continuing a journey to reach this place because we want to, not because we're afraid, but because we want to reach this place in God and with God and to achieve a level of intimacy with God. "Be still, and know," that "know" is intimate "know". Know, know, that he's God. And he says, "And I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world". I will receive honor because I'm gonna enter into a calm disposition and I'm gonna know that God's God. God's got this stuff. Why am I getting upset? That's why I said at the beginning to be calm is also a demonstration that I trust God. It shows that I really trust God, and that's what he's saying here, "Be calm and know that God is God".
Number four, Proverbs chapter 15 and 1, number four, calmness enables effective communication. You ever been mad, trying to talk to somebody? It don't work, do it, huh? Calmness enables effective, you start stuttering and everything, then you start slipping up, cussing, and you ain't cussed in a minute. Now, you done went back and dug up the book of Cuss chapter 62, verse 3, calmness enables effective communication. He says, now watch this, this is so important. "A gentle answer deflects anger," it deflects anger, think about this, and this is how you change arguments in the marriage.
"A gentle answer deflects anger," and it used to freak me out. I'm ready to fight, I'm ready to have a fight with Taffi and she gives a gentle answer and I'm thinking, I just, I'm fighting with myself. I'm fighting with myself. She ain't gonna get back with me. You know, what am I doing? And I calm down and say, "What am I doing? I just had a fight with myself because she ain't paying no attention to..." "I love you". "Don't tell me you love me right now. I wants to fight right now". "A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare".
Sometimes you might know that you're gonna approach a situation and you can feel the attitude, you can see when, you know, somebody, you know, they're ready to get with you and you just won't show up with a harsh word. You won't do it. That's a wise man right there. But that is a mature person. That is an emotionally mature person. And I'm telling you, man, I'm so hungry to see Christians mature in their emotions.