I am amazed as I look back over my life and see how patient God has been with me. Maybe it's because the older I get the more I can see my failures. Maybe I wasn't open to addressing those failures and to be honest many of them I enjoyed. I have heard many Christian teachers tell new converts they will be totally different since giving their life to Jesus and that His biggest desire is to make you happy. Of course, you and I know that even as a Christ follower we will face difficult times. The loss of a loved one suddenly, the loss of a job, marital trouble, misbehaving kids and so on. The difference is we are told in a multitude of places in the Bible that God will work even these things to His glory. Those that are reaping self induced consequences, those that are being crushed under someone else's' doing and those who are face to face with life in a fallen world.
So as a young Christian I would often revert back to the ways I was before. Reacting rash and defensively. using language unbecoming of a Christ follower and showing my displeasure with peoples decisions and honestly having to recognize consequences to my own choices. For some reason I felt I was beyond being judged and certainly by any others, saved or not. One of the hardest things to combat was my temper. Having spoken to many men I could tell quickly this was a flesh vs spirit issue commonly found among God's people. We see in 1st Timothy the qualifications of an elder or overseer and one of those things is that a man must be temperate.
With time and the more I studied the word, the better I was able to keep my temper under control and submit to God's grace as I became more aware and when the consequences came around I acknowledged they were from my poor decisions and even in the pain of the moment to not lose sight of the future hope in Him, where I will no longer fight the flesh the way many of us do here and now.
I became increasingly interested in understanding what some Christians called "righteous anger" and they always used the same verse found in Matthew 21:12 where we see Jesus throwing tables over in the temple and driving people out of the church who were set up making a profit. I get the visual this wasn't a quiet thing that took place, Jesus was livid and everyone knew it. The next verse, 13, Jesus quotes out of Isaiah and says that "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a robbers den."(NASB)
His anger was kindled by the fleshly actions of people just like you and me. Jesus knew what He was doing and in case you have forgotten, Jesus is without sin. So the response to sinfulness must have been ok at least for Him. So how does this apply to our current world situation? How do you suppose Jesus would respond to the ridiculousness of our politcal leaders? How do you think He would rebuke those pushing to legalize abortion, those getting rich off of the lies and fears of the supposed epedemic and those smuggling people for trafficing purposes, just to name a few?
And not to mention how I respond out of frustration and unbelief that things can be this ridiculous. I just heard of a group of public schools that have installed litter boxes in the bathroom for students that identify as cats. You can't make this stuff up. Where are the parents, where are the schools common sense, after all they are the ones you trust your kids to and now they are in school peeing in litter boxes. Of course my old habit of anger rears its head. I don't even know who to focus it at? The parents, the next generation, school leaders, political leaders, or the guy that cut me off going to work last week.
My conclusion? After we strip away the face of the person that we feel is responsible for these things and we begin to consider the words of the Bible I must conclude that any anger or if we call it righteous anger must be directed toward our enemy who is doing everything he can to take my eyes off Jesus. It is well-known that you serve one of two masters, God or His enemy. There are a good many people serving the enemy of God by default. They wouldn't say that or probably even agree with that statement if they don't know God, but it doesn't make it untrue. Satan has been given dominion over this fallen chunk of real estate but the key phrase is "for a time". We must continue to defend the faith, fight for righteousness and justice, protect the children born and unborn, help the widows and widowers and keep our focus on God. A long story for a short answer.
Today pray for good decisions and begin to humble yourself before God to see as He sees and take a stance where He would take a stance. By the way Jesus was particular in His battles. When asked about paying the ridiculous taxes His repsonse was render unto Caesar what is His and unto God what is His. That is a great rule to remember and you will find your temper coming back into check. Good luck.
until next time.
P.M.
