Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Time Out For Anger

Count to ten, maybe that's not far enough.


Psalms 4:1  Answer me when I call to you, O God who declares me innocent. Free me from my troubles. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

2 How long will you people ruin my reputation? How long will you make groundless accusations? How long will you continue your lies?

3 You can be sure of this: The LORD set apart the godly for himself. The LORD will answer when I call to him. 4 Don't sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent.

James 1:20  Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.

David was a man that had many troubles in his lifetime, many times he was hunted down or mistreated and had many false accusations made against him, and he could have had a bitter spirit and allowed his actions to be ruled by anger.

It is easy to give into the temptation to allow anger to control our behavior, it is part of wanting to control our life and the lives of those around us, but in the face of the opposition David reminded himself to keep himself in check and refuse to let anger control how he behaved.

"Think about it overnight" he says there is a good chance that you will realize how insignificant the problem is, or maybe we will realize the problem is with ourself, if that is true then its a good thing that you didn't act out and make the problem worse.

Numbers 14:18  'The LORD is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion.

If the Lord, who has every right to be angry, can be slow to anger then there is no reason that I cannot be forgiving for the minor things that upset me. I need to remember how many times he has forgiven me and follow his example when dealing with others.

Help me Lord to be patient and kind in spite of opposition or if things don't go my way.