Making The Choice To Not Be Angry – You Will Need Spiritual Perspective

Anger – you know the feeling don’t you? That feeling in rises up inside of you? Like a jug quickly filling up with water until it overflows.  You face is flushed.  Your heart is racing. But is it anger or frustration or disappointment? Often times they are indistinguishable and their expression through you is likewise indistinguishable.  Many people try to explain how they respond or excuse how they respond to life and problems by pointing to their ancestors and their family’s dominant country of origin.  

Yesterday we ran into a plumbing snag at the house we are working on.  It’s fixable, but it may cost one or two thousand dollars.  The plumber was talking to me on the phone, almost apologetically because he knows we are a ministry and the home owner has no money to pay for something like this. I could sense that he was expecting me to be unhappy and perhaps even angry.  I told him – “Man, I have been in two wars.  If someone is not dying – I don’t get upset about anything” I went on to say I know two things – “God is good” and “Jesus Saves”.  That brought perspective into the issue.  I told him that I was happy that I was dealing with this and not the home owner.  (Galatians 6:2) “Bear one another’s burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ.”  

If you can’t quell your anger – not let your emotions rule – that is a pretty good indication that you are not fully submitted to the Spirit of God.  That is not a judgment, just an observation from my own life.  People often point to Jesus being angry in the temple as an excuse for their own anger.  I would say that the next time you go to church and the money changers and vendors are set up in the foyer – go ahead and drive them out with a righteous anger.  But don’t use Jesus as a reason to make excuses for your flesh and sin.  Others looking for an excuse for themselves may buy it, but God doesn’t.  (Matthew 5:44) “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” 

Hmmm.  How are you going to squeeze anger into that verse? Here is another for icing on the cake. (James 1:2-3)  “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” Letting the emotion of anger have its way is a temptation -  a fierce temptation – that will spring on you without notice – like an ambush.  The only way you will “survive” an ambush is if you fight your way through it.  To do that you must have prepared yourself for such an occasion beforehand.  How you do that I will defer for another devotion. CHARLEY