Creflo Dollar - The Benefits of a Calm Disposition - Part 2
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, know what he's saying, "Dude, you're all over the place. You're, you got business in your head. There's just, 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, 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, let me move in what I call "ease". God, give me, God, give me a, give me a place of, 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, 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 to tune up. Sometimes 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, 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, the only thing that sends people of hell is rejecting Jesus, okay? Everything else is a journey. And guess what? Now that you make 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 need 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 and ables 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. It, think about this, and this is how you, 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, what am I doing"? And then, I calm down and say, "What am I doing? I just had a fight with myself," because she, she ain't paying no attention to me. "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 see, you can feel the attitude. You can see when, you know, somebody, you know, they, they 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, okay? In their emotions.
Alright, number five: calmness reduces physical and emotional stress. Calmness reduces physical and emotional stress. Most of our immunity resides in our gut. A lot of people don't know that, but a lot of your immunity is, is right here, in your gut, your microbiome. That's your, your fingerprint for, for who you are. So, what happens up here? You literally can fill it down here, and what happens here affects what goes on up here, and it's between your mind and what's going on there, the stress that you absorb up here translates down here, and then, what goes on here, has an effect up there, and we don't even get it. We just think that, you know, you know, stress, stress, stress. It's a, stress is an enemy. Stress is like a bow and arrow of the enemy trying to destroy your life.
You know, I said to my wife the other day, I'm like, "Oh wow, I let here get down here. I feel it in my gut". That's in the danger place now, it's trying to attack my immunity is trying to attack my health now. It's trying to move from something that was kind of invisible to something that's physical in my body. You cannot live your life stressed-out all your life and not end up being affected and impacted by that with all type of oxidative stress, and I know we're not in anything but you really mess yourself up when you do that, and you have to make a decision, "I'm not gonna do that". Well, calmness is one of those things you can choose.
Matthew, chapter 6, verse 25 through 27, calmness reduces physical and emotional stress. It really does. I used to get, I used to feel sick when I lost it, and because what here it came down here, and I used to just feel physically sick but when calmness was there, it was like, first of all, I don't like feeling that way, so I'm gonna fight more to be calm, because I don't like feeling like that. That's a, that's a bad feeling, Okay? It's not just an emotional thing, it's translated into your physical body.
And verse 25 says this, he says, "That's why I tell you not to worry about everyday life. Whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing"? He says, "Look at the birds, they don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly father feeds them, and aren't you far more valuable to him than they than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life"? No. And so what he is saying is, "don't choose that". Worry is fear-based. Worry is based in fear, and worry is a form of meditation. And when you meditate on the Word of God, you make your way prosperous and you have good success. But the same thing is true when you meditate on the negative things of the devil. You make that way prosperous for it to come to pass and you'll have good success and those things come to pass.
So, don't say you don't know how to do this because if you can, if you can worry, you can also take time to meditate in God's Word and allow his Word to have impact, and to affect your life just like worry does, affecting your life negatively. And when people spend a lot of time and worry, they're not really good people to hang around with. I mean, their attention is gone because they're more meditating on the worry instead of the thing right in front of them, and so it doesn't add a moment to your life. It takes moments from your life. Yeah, it robs you of moments of your life. And, you know, who would ever thought, you know, calmness would be something that I can choose to help me to begin to walk out of a situation that could be hurtful.
Number six: calmness demonstrates trust in God's goodness. Psalms 23 and 4, watch this: Psalms 23 and 4. Calmness demonstrates trust in God's goodness. God is good because God is good, but that goodness being seen in our life, I have to trust it. I like what David said. David said, "I have to believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord while I'm alive, in the land of the living". Why not take the time to be? You know, here's what calmness does, I am calm because I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord. I am calm because I trust God. He got me. He's always got me. And then, you have a flashback of remembering, you know, the things He's done in the past. I can, I can choose calmness.
He says in verse 4, he says, "Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid". Why? He's trusting God. I'm gonna stay calm even through a dark valley, "For you are close beside me, your rod and your staff, it protects and it comforts me" because I'm calm. I mean, imagine, imagine, imagine if most of our country would just get a, get a hold of this message of just choosing calmness. The shootings that's taken place, the murders that's taken place, the overdoses that's taking places, the divorces that have taken place. And I thought, "Well, there's just a ridiculous thing to teach on, calmness. I sound like some kind of Buddhist priest or something," you know?
And, and nothing against, you know, Buddhist priests. We could probably learn something from them because I understand they're pretty calm, you know? But it's like, man, we've got to begin to turn to some of the practical things in life, so we can achieve the very objectives that the Bible is telling us about right now. And we can't just be so, so spiritual that we're no earthly good, and we have, we have no demonstration of how to practically live a life of victory because we're so, you know, trying to, you know, trying to do this, I don't even know what you call it, you know, create this little fable or something that's not even true. It's like, "Dude, just calm down," you know?
There's something that happens when, when that takes place in your life, and I thought, "Man, I need to, I need to pay attention to this". I believe that I'm better and stronger and wiser and more creative, and just a better man, when I choose to become a better man. When I choose to keep my mouth closed when I know, ain't nothin' good trying to come out right now. That's an emotionally mature person, and that's a path that we can get on that. You can walk out of here today and you can walk out of here with this objective in your mind, "I am going to pursue this calm disposition," and you become, you know, I told Taff', I said, you know, I see the man I wanna be.
I wanna be this man that's a man of ease, and I wanna be a gentle man, and it doesn't work out, work out that way all the time, but I'm on that path. I had to stop at several stations, get several tune-ups and alignments, and my wheels have needed to be balanced, but it's not enough to kick me off the path. I'm gonna stay on the path. I'm gonna stay on the journey, and, you know, one day I'm gonna reach that destination, and I'll see, I'm already seeing it. I'm already seeing the benefits of choosing to be calm over everything else. Basically, you know, it's just, it's gonna be all right. It's gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna be fine.
You know, I have my great babies over there, and beautiful, beautiful little girls and, and they're pretty active, and sometimes they can be pretty messy, and get stuff on stuff that I can't believe they did that. But I, I've come to this conclusion, there's nothing they can do that can't be repaired. There's nothing they can do that can't be fixed. There's nothing they can do that a little soap and water won't get up, and there's nothing they can do that a little paint won't get rid of. That was not me. Before, it was like, "Get your children. Get your children".
ou remember the time y'all, we had this big spending night on Christmas? And, and Riley was like, what two? And I came in there, Lord have mercy, she's swinging on the curtain. She like Tarzan. I said, "Boy, if you don't get this little girl". I thought it was the end of the world, and it's like, you know, kids are going to be kids. My wife kept trying to do, kids are going to be kids. Calmness is now really benefited me. Really, because the older you get, you can't be going off, you gonna get, you be gone. You better, you better learn how, where the chill pills are, and you better take two or three of them, alright?
Number seven: calmness cultivates humility and gentleness. Calmness cultivates, it cultivates humility, it cultivates gentleness. Ephesians, chapter 4, and verse 2-3. Look at this, cultivating humility and gentleness because that's, that was one of my, my goals, I wanna be a gentle man, a man of ease and now a calm. A man, a man that chooses calmness, okay? And look what he says here, he says, "always be humble and gentle, be patient with each other, making allowances for each other's faults". "Making allowances for each other's faults," that's pretty big, right?
As Christians, we've gotta make allowances for one another's faults, making allowances for each. So that means you can't be condemning people to hell if you're making allowances for somebody's faults, right? Okay, and it's, verse 3 says this, he says, "Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace". God knows something here. It's not a, it's not a manly thing to be out of control. It's not a, it's not a manhood characteristic to not be able to be a gentleman and to, you know, not to talk down at people and, and all that kind of stuff. It's, it's not a man who a character. That's not what makes you a man.
Alright, number eight: calmness promotes forgiveness and reconciliation. Calmness promotes forgiveness and reconciliation. In the book of Colossians, chapter 3 and verse 13 in NLT, Colossians 3, and verse 13, forgiveness and reconciliation. He says, "make allowances," hear it again, "for each other's faults". There it is again, "Make allowances for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you". You know what it means, "to make allowances for each other's fault"?
Just like, people are going to make mistake. Make allowances for, for their faults. Forgive anyone who offends. You remember? The Lord forgave you. So, you need to forgive others, okay? Forgiveness and reconciliation, you have to be calm to do that. You don't do that while you're still angry. You don't do that while you're still offended. You don't do that while you still got a problem with it. You gotta, you gotta bring yourself to that place and in that place, it'll promote reconciliation. In that place, it promotes forgiveness. But as long as you stay in that other place, there's no calmness to promote those things in your life. Look at how powerful the disposition of calmness is in our lives.
Number nine: calmness inspires gratitude and contentment. Calmness inspires gratitude and contentment. Look at 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 16-18. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 16-18. Look what he says here, "Always be joyful". That promotes calmness. "Never stop praying". That promotes calmness. "Be thankful in all circumstances". That promotes calmness. "For this is God's will for you who belongs to Christ Jesus". I have a whole new outcome on this scripture. You know what he's saying? Calmness is God's will for you. All these things promote calmness. Being calm is God's God's will for you. And, and you know, I didn't come from a family that demonstrated calmness all the time. I came from a family that you, I'm gonna tell you, okay? I ain't asked you if you wanna hear it. I'm gonna tell you, okay?
So, calmness inspires gratitude. It inspires contentment, where you are, knowing that you're not always gonna be there. And then finally, 1 Peter, chapter 3, verse 15 and 16, "Calmness serves as a witness to unbelievers". You talking about a witness to unbelievers, "calmness serves as a witness to unbelievers". I did get the training that when I would do, you know, I used to do interviews with everybody. "20-20," "ABC News". I just wasn't scared to do an interview. And a lot of times, their job was to see if they could rattle me, okay, and get me going. Then I just stayed calm and, um, you know, they hit their best shot and I just kinda stay calm. I tell you, it's a witness, it's a witness to people. Uh, sometimes we think that we need to lose our cool to let them know.
You know, I'm from college Paul. You don't, you don't talk to me like that. I cut you. That's what I do. I cut you. I shot people you heard about in the news. I, you don't, you don't mess with me. That's, that's just pride. That's, that's an insecure man that's trying to convince himself that he's not insecure, he's inferior. And so he's gotta do something to make, it seems like he's superior. So he adopts this false sense of superiority and that's not a, that's not a good witness to unbelievers, the better witness to unbelievers is I gotta stay calm in this situation where a great percentage of people will lose it. I'm gonna stay calm and be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.