Grinding Anger

You might be surprised to hear me say that anger is not itself a bad thing.  In fact, if you never get angry at anything it means you don't love anything good or hate anything evil.  Here's what I mean: the more you love something, the more you hate it's opposite.  For instance, if I didn't get bent-angry when someone was trying to hurt my daughter,you would rightly say there was something incredibly wrong with me...like that I don't really love her.

No, anger itself is not all bad.  It motivates to promote the good, protect the precious, and fight evil.  If you'd like 2 pictures of Jesus getting angry look here (John 2) and especially here (Revelation 19 - yikes).  The problem is that we are all bad and our sin screws up what should be a good motivation - namely, our anger.

Paul puts it like this in Ephesians 4:

26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

There it is.  Don't sin (dishonor, disobey God) when you're angry.  And don't stay angry long because that opens the door for the devil himself, or one of his demons, to screw with you.  Need I add that giving the devil an opportunity is not good?

So how do you harness your anger?  It's not easy.  The wise man of the Proverbs says that controlling your anger takes the strength of a warrior and big-time wisdom.

Proverbs 16.32 Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. 

Proverbs 19.11 Good sense makes one slow to anger,
and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

This last Proverb leads us to where we need to go.  It is our glory to "overlook an offense."  Why is it the glory of a man to forgive a sin? Because it points to the most glorious thing ever - the cross of Jesus that enabled our sins to be overlooked.  Roy, the Righteous God has every reason to be royally wrathful towards you and me.  He truly loves what is good and hates what is evil, and we deserve the justice of hell.  Through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus (Him enduring what we deserve), our sins are forgiven and have peace with God. 

When I'm angry the thing that defuses me best is the cross.  There's 3 things we find at the cross for our anger problem:

1. I've sinned worse against God than anyone has or can against me.

2. Through Christ, God has completely forgiven me and loves me.

3. In His grace, I have the power and motivation to forgive and love the one I'm angry with.

A place to start:

Read Colossians 3.12-17.

Think about your sin and what God owes you.

Reaffirm your trust in Jesus to save you.

Think of what God has done for you.

Think of who you're angry with and forgive them.

Make plans to treat them the way God would have you.

V is for Victory

Season 2 of Matt and Roy's racquetball challenge opened Thursday morning.  We'll call season 1 a draw since, honestly, we have no idea.  But there was no doubt this morning.  Roy won handily in the first game, as Matt seemed to be having a hard time remembering what game they were playing (see Roy diving to reach a serve above).

But Matt took the next two, with a dominating performance to close things out.  

Games:

Matt: 2 

Roy: 1

Record:

Matt: 1-0

Roy: 0-1

Welcome To Your Face Grind

Hey, Roy.

I heard that prayer last night.  And I couldn't help but remember this verse:

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another (Proverbs 27.17).

It's funny that the Hebrew literally reads, "so one man sharpens the face of another."  So I've created this little blog to help sharpen your face.  Enjoy.

You have a bit of a hard head (and now we're both grinning, but really that's nothing to be proud of.)  God, through His prophet Isaiah, has this to say:

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
for the Lord has spoken:
“Children have I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master's crib,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.” (Isaiah 1.2-3)

You'll know this better than I, but when you want to grind a surface, you need another surface that's even harder.  That harder surface can shape and carve the softer one.  So where will we find a material suitable for our stubborn faces? God proclaims through his prophet Jeremiah,

Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? (Jeremiah 23.29)

So to sharpen you, we will need to apply the hard, awesome truth of the word directly to your face (and mine too, my brother.)  So I'm gonna write you some devos.  And if I'm gonna write these, you sure as hell better read them!

Here's your homework:

1. You can click on these blue links to see the Scriptures.  Read this one and think about it: Psalm. 119.33-40.

2. Ok, now realize that what you just read is a prayer.  A prayer to understand, love, and live God's Word.  Roy, you've got to make this prayer your prayer.  Keep it on your screen all day.  Print it out.  Ask God with passion.

Enjoy your facegrind.  Next time we'll talk about anger.

Grinding our faces together,

Matt

p.s.  If you want to leave a comment, click on the blue "comments" link below.  Just fyi.