With God We Can Do All Things

When faced with situations that may cause us to become angry with another person we have a choice to make. We can either be slow to anger, restraining our lips from speaking things we will later regret or we can lose our temper and basically invalidate our religion to those around us (James 1:26).
There have been times when I've spoken in anger and later felt that my witness for Christ had been blown out the window. I immediately felt remorse even though at the time I felt my anger was justified. Why? Because I knew that my behavior wasn't pleasing in God's eyes. The Bible clearly states that we are to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, to turn the other cheek (luke 6:27-33) and to not be easily offended (Proverbs 19:11). That may be difficult to do at times, but it's not impossible or God wouldn't have instructed us to do it.
Hebrews 4:15 tells us that we have a High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses. He was tempted just as we are, yet He was without sin. Verse 16 tells us that we can come boldly to the throne of grace in order to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I thank God that we can ask for His help and when we do blow it we can be assured of forgiveness when we confess our sin (1 John 1:9). That mercy still amazes me. Don't get me wrong though. This is not a license to sin.
Unresolved anger can quickly turn to bitterness and unforgiveness. These things are rooted much more deeply than just a simple angry moment and can eventually cause serious repercussions if not dealt with promptly. So how do we deal with the problem before it veers out of control? By being spiritually minded. This requires spending time in the Word, renewing our way of thinking. When our thinking is in line with God's we will be slow to anger, we will show mercy and we will learn to forgive no matter how many times we've been mistreated. When Satan attacks us or throws temptation our way we will have weapons of warfare at our disposal. In my own strength I cannot conquer the enemy. But Jesus can...and did. And because He did, I now have access to that same power. I just need to learn how to tap into it. I need to fight those temptations the very way Jesus did; with the word of God.

Until next time....

~jan~