Friday, January 17,
2014
First of all, God says we must get rid of our
anger – along with a lot of other things that have no place in the Christian who
walks in genuine maturity of the faith.
And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of
redemption. Put away from you all
bitterness and wrath and anger
and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and
be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ
has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:30 - 32 (NRSV)
How do I DO
that?
In Psalm 109 David pleads his case against
some enemies to God. They have set him
up, framed him with lies and are pushing for his removal from the throne. They want him in prison or executed. If it happens David’s family will be
destitute, shamed in the community, cursed and endure suffering beyond
imagination. David is ANGRY! His anger (and how he deals with it) is of
tremendous benefit to us as an example of how to deal with our own anger.
Step One –
Perceive and Acknowledge
King David
has an outburst of anger because retaliation is on his mind and heart; he seeks
vengeance on his enemies:
May that
be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my
life. Psalms 109:20 (NRSV)
David’s desire is that every bit of the evil his enemies plotted
against him would come back on their own heads.
Most of us have felt that way.
But in David’s case he is doing the healthy thing – acknowledging before
God his own anger for what it is.
There
is no candy-coating here; he prays, God, get those suckers! And he put it in writing!
In so-praying, David is acknowledging his sin
of anger. And you have to do that if
you’re actually going to get forgiveness and help. Perceive and acknowledge your anger!
Step Two – Pray and Accept
But you, O LORD my Lord, act
on my behalf for your name’s sake; because
your steadfast love is good, deliver me. Psalms 109:21 (NRSV)
David’s prayer takes David out of the
equation – no retaliation in David’s hands, no vengeance. He simply asks God to straighten out the
offenders. David’s prayer is for
deliverance. There is no instruction for
God, only a plea that righteousness would prevail. David leaves it open for God to
straighten-out whoever might be the cause of all the trouble – even if the
troublemaker is David!
Can you pray like that, with the kind of
humility that trusts God to “right” whatever is “wrong”? Sometimes – no, most times – when there is
trouble and anger there is enough wrong to go around. Occasionally, in marital disputes for
instance, there might be a husband who is 100% wrong or fault which completely belongs
to the wife; I’ve never found such a situation, but there might be ONE IN ALL THE WORLD.
Perceive and Acknowledge your anger;
Pray with humility, Accepting God’s way, and…
Step
Three – Proceed with Your Life
With
my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng. Psalms 109:30 (NRSV)
To “proceed” is to go about your life,
giving thanks to God for what He will do publicly and privately. This doesn’t guarantee a smooth life, one
without difficulty – beloved, that does not exist! Life’s road is indeed rocky!
What this constitutes is a life obediently
staying in the will of God to deal with anger in the only appropriate way – see
it as YOUR anger, confessing it to God and trusting God to right the
circumstances, even if it’s painful for you.
The key to getting help is trusting God;
and He IS trustworthy. It’s always your
choice – you will be angry sometimes, but you don’t have to be sinful.
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