Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
Prov. 22 ... 24Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: 25Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.
angry: person having strong feeling of or showing annoyance, displeasure, or hostility
furious: full of anger or violent/intense fury
I have an acquaintance who is always angry over something. Her way of life is anger. Proverb 22 warns me not to make friendship with her. I certainly know she is not a real friend to me though I am a friend to her and would help her if possible. However it is rarely possible to help her. No one but God can help her. I prefer avoiding her. Certainly I pray for God to help me to handle the situation with her properly for to confront her with her sin would do nothing but add more fuel to the fire that already rages in her. So any confrontation must be done properly and not be of myself. Nevertheless I am very aware of the danger that comes from hearing her anger.
Recently she was complaining about some lawn work she was having done at her house. We have the same worker in this area. After her words, I was aware I was examining the work this man did for me. Before that I was not aware of the problem. I certainly do not want her anger to affect my dealing with this worker so I began praying.
I can see how Prov. 22:25 shows us a danger of the angry person's words causing us to "learn their ways and be a snare".
I know God will make a way for me to escape.
I also realize that I would like to escape permanently so I would not have problems in future.
But each time we have a problem we see the following exercised:
I Jn. 4:4 ... 4Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
If God has us speak, the Holy Spirit overcomes. If God has us keep silent, the Holy Spirit overcome.
We have opportunity to trust God to overcome in the midst of the problem. Therefore we can rejoice even in the problem. (I Peter 4)