July 7 | How to Handle Disagreement

Today’s reading from Job 34–35 and Acts 15:1–21 invites us to reflect on how disagreement can reveal what is taking shape within us over time. Both passages show people wrestling with difficult questions, strong opinions, and the need for wisdom that goes deeper than personal reaction.In Job, Elihu continues speaking into Job’s suffering with confidence, correction, and theological claims about God’s justice. His words remind us that even when people speak about God, they can still struggle to understand the full weight of another person’s pain, and that wisdom requires humility, patience, and careful listening.In Acts 15, the early Church faces a serious disagreement over whether Gentile believers must follow the law of Moses in order to be saved. Instead of avoiding the conflict, the apostles and elders gather, listen, debate, remember what God has done, and return to Scripture for direction.Together, these passages invite us to consider how we respond when disagreement surfaces. They ask us to notice whether we rush to defend, avoid, or control the conversation, and to reflect on how God may use honest tension to form patience, humility, and discernment in us.