Skip to main content

Anger


“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27)

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, (Mark 11:15)

           Part of me wants to cheer. Christians are allowed to be angry. Contrary to the opinions of some, Jesus got angry. I’ve been told that anger serves a vital function in our lives. It tells us that something is wrong. Today’s passage doesn’t address questions of how to determine what is actually wrong. Instead, the focus is on dealing with the situation. Whatever the problem is, deal with it. Do so immediately and effectively, before “sunset,” or whatever your preferred end-of-day is. The point is to deal with it before you are left unable to do anything but stew on it for hours. Stewing time seems to be when the devil gets a foothold.
          Stewing is a time when two things happen. First, whatever is being stewed is kept in a liquid. Secondly, the heat is kept on. The idea is to make the meat and vegetables placed in the liquid tender, but if the heat is kept too high for too long, the food gets burned. The same happens when anger is allowed to stew too long, only it’s people who get burned.
          For me, one of the keys is to try to keep disagreements about the subject, and not the person. Another key is to try to keep discussions about disagreements from continuing too long, especially into an evening. I need time to detach from the discussion before bed or I do end up focusing on that instead of sleeping.
          There’s something else to think about here. While Paul was writing to Gentiles, think for a moment about the Jewish perspective of a day. It begins at sundown. So, while we think in terms of not ending the day in anger, there is also the consideration of not beginning your day in anger.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more