WHY ARE YOU ANGRY?

“Sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

-  Genesis 4:7

God tells us that when we are angry, sin is crouching at our door.  In other words, anger is like a wild animal ready to jump out and overtake us.  It’s like a lion, crouching in tall grass, ready to pounce on its unsuspecting prey.

Anger can take control of us and even try to kill the object of our wrath.  Proverbs 18:14 asks,  “A crushed spirit who can bear?  How many people have we wounded because we’ve become angry and lashed out with our tongue?  The Lord warns in Ecclesiastes 7:9, “Do not quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.”  We may feel powerful when we’re angry, but deep down we know it’s mainly to cover up our weaknesses.

Someone has said that we live in an age of rage.  On our highways we witness road rage almost everyday.  People do and say terrible things to each other in anger.  On the news headlines since last week is the “Thrilla in NAIA”.  Two warring parties, the Tulfos and the Santiagos wrecking each other, aiming to destroy the other’s credibility, are racing to gain public’s sympathy.  Truly, when you walk down the hallways, you see anger everywhere.

God comes to us today and asks, “Why are you angry?” (Genesis 4:6).  God asks this question to get at the root of our problems.  He wants us to heal our hearts inflicted by others.  And we can trust Him to put a leash on the sin crouching at our door.

My prayer for today is that may the Lord help us to master our anger.  Teach us patience and self-control so that our responses to others do not injure or destroy them.

Good day and God bless you, in Jesus’ name.

JUST LIKE US

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed…..and the heavens gave rain. – James 5:17-18

Elijah made kings tremble, ate food delivered by birds, raised the dead, called fire from heaven, directed weather patterns, and outran a king’s chariot.  And yet he was also “a man just like us.”  Isn’t that description a bit hard to swallow? Elijah sounds like a superhero – one of a kind, totally unlike any of us.  But Elijah had the same human nature we have, and prayed to the same God we can pray to.  God answered Elijah’s prayers, and God will answer our prayers.

“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.  Elijah was a man just like us.  He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain…..Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain.” (James 5:16-18). 

Elijah did not pray for his own wish list.  He prayed for what God promised.  That’s why his prayers were so effective.  God had told Elijah, “I will send rain on the land” (1 Kings 18:1).  So, on a clear day with no thunder, Elijah told Ahab, “There is the sound of a heavy rain.”  Then Elijah prayed and kept on praying until a tiny cloud appeared.  His faith saw not the smallness of the cloud but the certainty of God’s promise, and he knew the downpour was near.

If, like Elijah, we are right with God, and if we base our prayers on God’s promises and watch in faith for God’s answers, our prayers will be powerful and effective.

Today, my prayer is that God will give us ears to hear His Word and faith to trust His promises.  May He teach us to pray as ordinary people, expecting great things from our extraordinary GOD.

PUT IT ON HOLD

When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. – Proverbs 10:19

This passage begins and ends with our mouths.  With our mouths we can make life good of render it nearly intolerable.  And this particular proverb urges us to hold our tongues.

It’s not so much that silence is such a blessing but that speaking is often such a curse.  A careless word, a thoughtless comment, an angry retort, a jealous jab – all come from the mouth.

Don’t we often just say what we think?  Don’t we often simply allow our emotions and passions to control our tongues and inflict injury with our words?

To avoid causing so much injury, we basically need to hold our tongues.  But does it do any good to try to manage our tongues by ourselves?

The best way to hold our tongues is to admit we cannot do it ourselves, and to surrender to the One who can.  Tongues that are on hold, in the grip not of our determination but of divine love, are helpful, healing tongues, held by God.

This must be what James meant when he wrote, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless” (James 1:26).  The only way, finally, to hold your tongue successfully is to let God hold it – and use it.

DON’T GIVE UP

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people especially to those who belong to the family of believers. - Galatians 6:9-10

Farmers are patient people.  They prepare the soil and plant their crops.  Day after day they labor, from sunrise to sundown, getting the seeds in the ground.  Then, when everyone else goes on vacation, they work through tending their crops.  Finally, it’s harvest time.  Not everyone has the patience to be a farmer.  Many of us want to see our efforts rewarded much more quickly.  We can learn an important life lesson from the farmer:  good things take time.

Doing what God asks can be a hard work.  Sometimes, we don’t see the results we want soon enough to suit us, so we’re tempted to give up.  We share our faith with a friend and pray for his salvation.  When he doesn’t accept Christ right away, we get discouraged and quit praying.  We try to help a friend overcome a problem, but we don’t see any change, so we get frustrated and move to another project.  Our problem is we give up too soon.  Can you imagine a farmer preparing the soil for his crop, then never planting the seeds because he felt he had already worked hard enough?  Or planting the crop but growing impatient when it wasn’t ready to harvest after just one month?

We need to be patient, like the farmer.  As long as we keep praying for people, encouraging them, and helping them grow, God promises we will see a harvest.  If we faithfully study God’s Word and obey what it says, we will grow more and more like Christ.  It won’t necessarily happen overnight, but it will happen.  Don’t grow tired of the doing the right things.  God’s Word promises that if we persist in doing what is right, we will be rewarded.

FACING CONFLICT

Our world today is filled with conflict.  No wonder some people find themselves lamenting, “Why can’t we all just get along?”

Conflict is natural, neutral, and normal.  It’s natural because people are different and unique.  Conflict is neutral because it’s neither good nor bad; it simply is. It happens. It can work for us; it can work against us.  What matters is how we manage it.  Conflict is also normal because in our broken world, where each of us is infected with selfish nature, none of us should ever  be shocked, or surprised when conflict breaks out.

            What should we do?  Turn to Scripture for both strength and guidance. Use it for you devotions to help you work through and grow from the conflicts in our world.

WHO MAKES THE FIRST MOVE?

But the Lord God called….   “Where are you?”  ---- Genesis 3:9

Conflict – it’s a fact of life.  It’s so common that every relationship experiences it.  Conflict is natural because we live in broken world.

Conflict is also neutral.  It can destroy relationships but it can also deepen them.  Conflict can work against us, shredding trust, ripping even old friendships to pieces.  But it can also work for us, forging deeper understanding and trust because people care enough.

Just a few pages into our Bibles, we find conflict crashing into Paradise.  Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and all kinds of conflicts erupt.  They were at odds with their own bodies, embarrassed by their nakedness.  They were at odds with each other as Adam blamed Eve.  Worst of all, the guilty pair found that they were frighteningly at odds with God.  When they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, they hid.

What’s our hope in the face of conflicts, some of which seem beyond healing?  Notice that even at the dawn of history our deepest hope in facing conflict was revealed:  “The Lord God called……”  Without God’s penetrating voice, which speaks both truth and grace, hearts would remain hopelessly hardened. But God can – and He does – bid all conflicts to cease.