To edify, acknowledge the good things your neighbors do.

If someone opens the door or presses the elevator button for you, take time to thank him and express your appreciation. Also, compliment the person who offers his seat to the elderly or to the handicapped. The person who admits his error and apologizes for it. The person whose No. 1 priority is always God. The person who gets out of his way to give to the needy or to visit the sick and lonely.  

Compliment righteousness. Express praise and approval. A simple wink and nod or thumbs up or Good job! when said with sincerity stirs up joy and gladness in the doer’s heart and encourages him to repeat his deed.

To edify, bless and do not curse.

To curse is to wish harm or misfortune to a person or body, usually in anger and expressed with profanities.

⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. JAMES 3

Divine Justice says:

³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. GENESIS 12 

²⁷ When a wicked person curses his enemy he is cursing himself. SIRACH 21

²⁸ Bless those who curse you. LUKE 6 

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse… ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. ROMANS 12

⁹ Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing… that you may inherit a blessing. 1 PETER 3

Bless the neighbor that rubs you the wrong way and you put yourself in a win-win situation: Evil will be overcome and love advanced. Your worth as a coworker of God will be proved. The people around you will be edified by your example. Divine Justice will bless you. Pray for his prosperity and prosperity will come to visit you. Pray for his good health and good health will come to visit you. The hotline between God and you will turn hotter.

²⁴ When one person blesses and somebody else curses, which one is the Lord going to listen to? SIRACH 34

To edify, stop faultfinding and grumbling; be thankful in everything.

Going through baptism of fire is like sitting in a hot seat. The devil expects you to complain, grumble, curse, find fault or simply surrender under the brunt, but do not give him the satisfaction. Rather, endure meekly and pray with thanksgiving. This will knock him off his seat.

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. PHILIPPIANS 4 nlt

⁹ Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door. JAMES 5

¹⁴ Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining (against God) and questioning and doubting (among yourselves). ¹⁵ That you may show yourselves to be blameless and guileless, innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish (faultless, unrebukable) in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation (spiritually perverted and perverse), among whom you are seen as bright lights (stars or beacons shining out clearly) in the (dark) world. PHILIPPIANS 2 amp     

¹⁰ Do not grumble as some of [our ancestors] did. 1 CORINTHIANS 10

We know of a lady who will not endure meekly. Her routine is terribly annoying. She grumbles the moment she wakes up. She complains of the humidity, the noise, the dust, the cooking, the house pet, the government, the news, the traffic, the ride, the market, the bed, her body pains, etc. She always finds fault in her housemates, neighbors, pastors, churchmates, the passers-by, etc. She is a busy-body who goes around “testing the spirit” in people and rebuking them without reservation, incurring enemies along the way. She wants everyone to conform to her perfection. She casts aspersion on those who do not, creating misimpressions with ripple effect and breaking up love-relationships. Now, people avoid her presence. It’s sad because she has her good qualities. 

The grumbler expects to enjoy a smooth, godly ride in this rough, satanic world. “Why me? I don’t deserve this. Where is God? Why is He allowing this to happen? It doesn’t pay to be godly,”—this in effect is what is being said.  

¹⁷ You have wearied the Lord with your words. “How have we wearied Him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and He is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?” MALACHI 2

¹³ “You have said harsh things against Me,” says the Lord. ¹⁴ “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out His requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? ¹⁵ But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.’” MALACHI 3

²⁰ But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?” ²¹ Does not the Potter have right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? ROMANS 9

²⁷ How long will this wicked community grumble against Me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. ²⁸ So tell them: “As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say.” NUMBERS 14

Instead of grumbling, be thankful for the hard-knocks for they keep you on your toes. And find something humorous in your situation. A good laugh will ease the tension building up in you and lighten your burden.[1]

¹⁰ Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? JOB 2

To edify, do intercessory prayer.

²³ As for me, be it far from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. 1 SAMUEL 12

Pray for your neighbors. Answered prayers will help ease their burdens and edify them.

¹⁶ The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. JAMES 5 nlt

¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry [prayer]. PSALM 34

²⁴ What the righteous desire will be granted. PROVERBS 10

The Son of Man does intercessory prayer in heaven. 

³⁴ Messiah Y’shua is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ROMANS 8

¹² In Him and through Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. EPHESIANS 3

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[1] A secret to the resiliency of the Filipino people in surviving crisis situations is their jolly disposition. Some of those who cannot afford to eat at Furukawa (a high-end Japanese restaurant) will tell you they eat at Turokawa. When the late Pope John Paul II of Tutus tuos, Tutus tuos fame came to visit the Philippines, those tasked by Imelda Marcos to attend to the preparations mumbled Puro utos, puro utos.