“But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.”(Col 3:8)
First off, by and large, I did not experience the feeling of indwelling anger today: Lord I'm not angry, help me to be not angry.
So, I'm at the gym (which I used to love, but on dialysis its not much fun) which I now force myself to do three times a week, and as usual listening to a sermon. Who to choose: Rob Bell, Francis Chan, Erwin McManus, and a bunch of others. I picked a favorite who had been out of the playlist for a while, the ever reliable John Piper. He talked on bitterness and putting aside anger.
I know God doesn't want me angry and I know I don't like being angry. I actually don't mind being angry when something makes me angry -- no, I don't like the state of being, where my being is angry. Piper challenged that it is a lack of faith, a lack of belief in God's promises. Yeah, that seems true. So, I determined to wake each day with the first words off my lips a request that God take away my anger and replace it with his peace.
And similar to the dad in John's gospel, I will each morning say I'm not angry -- help me to not be angry.
1 comment:
Putting off anger is really hard! Especially when it's there in the unconscious, lurking around. You don't want to admit it, but it pops up in weird ways - like getting ticked at small little things. Generalized anger is a bit like generalized grief, in that way.
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