The practice is more than an application of the point, it is the point.

“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
Matthew 5:25-26

If we're going to live in the Kingdom of God, we need to be less concerned with winning and more concerned with loving.

Bottom Line

Working towards compromise and resolution will help clean the anger out of your heart.

Working towards compromise and resolution requires that you don't stew on conflict, but instead strive to settle matters quickly.

"Modern neuroscience has found that memories, even those that remain vivid and feel real and upsetting, aren't stable. Every time we access them, they change. They get "edited." The way we remember things happening becomes more and more biased toward ourselves, meaning the more we relive and ruminate, the more our memory of that event may morph.... We end up with an event we were both there for, a shared experience, and yet we now have two very different memories of what happened."
– John & Julie Gottman

Working towards compromise and resolution requires that you see your adversary as more than a caricature.

Working towards compromise and resolution requires that you listen and empathize.

Working towards compromise and resolution requires that you hold outcomes more loosely.

Working towards compromise and resolution requires that you define what's most important for you.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Romans 12:17-18

"Indeed, go to court or not - as makes sense in the circumstances. But do whatever you do without hostility, bitterness, and the merciless drive to win. Be prepared to sacrifice your interest for that of another if that seems wise. And keep a joyous confidence in God regardless of what happens...
Standing in the kingdom, we make responsible decision in love, with assurance that how things turn out for us does not really matter that much because, in any case, we are in the kingdom of the heavens. In that kingdom nothing that can happen to us is 'the end of the world'."
– Dallas Willard from "The Divine Conspiracy"

Action Steps

• Prayerfully bring someone you relate to as an adversary to God. Ask Him to help you see them the way He does and to clean the anger out of your heart.
• Spend time empathetically listening to someone you disagree with this week so that you might know and love them more faithfully.