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As another week seemingly “flies by” we are one week closer to the next holy day season which is Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. We are in a time of earnest self examination where we need to deeply and thoroughly investigate our thoughts, words, and actions, to meditate on these in line with God’s righteous instructions from the Bible and change to become more like Christ. We do this all year round but are even more keenly aware of the need to as we approach this season before deleavening our dwelling place. How are you doing?
For me, I didn’t want this week to end in some respects as it was a brief respite from the weekly travelling for work we are about to embark on again which will take us up to early April. Six weeks of 5 hours each round trip adds up to 30 hours of road travel which eventually catches up with one and can be challenging to sustain for long periods of time. Anticipating time off for the week of holy day celebrations which includes the Night to be Much Observed or Remembered is something to eagerly look forward to as a “light at the end of the tunnel” and the impetus to keep on going each day. Home comforts sure beat any hotel room or temporary dwelling that may be sufficient for our needs, and knowing that we will stay at home for more than a couple of days, indeed even longer than a week for this Festival, is such a motivating desire in order to accomplish what needs to be done prior to Passover even though it may be at times somewhat challenging.
While enjoying the luxury of staying at home and pottering about each day after working locally this past week, there was much enjoyment tending to plants and odd jobs that were waiting to be done. An unexpected highlight was finding two sprouted seeds in a lemon cut open to juice for our daily lemon water which we drink each morning. This was the first time for us to see such a thing — and so these were planted in our front yard. We are very excited to watch and see if we are blessed with lemon trees. Just this week I was thinking about having a lemon tree and even expressed the desire to others without thinking much of it. As usual God heard what was said and the next thing I know here we are with a most unusual event. How God continues to surprise us with such joy, laughter and merriment.
Listening to various sermons from our member site there were some excellent topics covered regarding marriage and our enemy. There seemed to be a theme of anger being addressed. Within the marriage sermon the speaker talked about successful long marriages of 50, 60, and even 70+ years where all couples agreed and divulged that their success came from compromise or give and take, not wanting their own way in all matters, as well as never going to sleep at night while angry. Talking about their problems or concerns occurred with open, honest communication to settle these matters before bedtime. This was a common thread between all the men and women so that they enjoyed peace and removed any anger — and it worked! Let us refer to scripture in the Bible where God has precisely mentioned this in Ephesians 4:26-27 “Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil”.
Anger was a big subject addressed in another sermon about the devil, our adversary, our number one enemy. Something that piqued my curiosity, and something I had never really thought about was the fact that the devil has maintained an incredibly high level of anger always. Imagine being so angry that you cannot be any more angry than you are and keep this going for thousands of years! Yes, the devil is full of rage! Humans get angry at times, even very angry, but eventually people then go on to experience joy, laughter, and various other emotions. Anger can be so destructive, raises blood pressure, can initiate a stroke, burst blood vessels, result in heart attacks, and can even kill us through unforeseen complications leading to death. While the devil is a fallen angel we know he cannot suffer physically like we do but he will pay the ultimate price with his existence terminated mercifully by God in the future (Revelation 20:10).
Thinking about anger I wanted to realise what actually makes me angry as it is part of my self examination process this year even though it doesn’t really happen that much or to the degree it did since receiving God’s Spirit. What makes me angry may be very different to what makes you angry. Through this very intensive phase of self examination I set out to identify and document where any danger zones were hiding. Surprisingly there are quite a few things to mention. Incorrect grammar was high on my list more so than wrong spelling which is merely just annoying to me. Dangerous driving from people who cause you to literally slam on your brakes because they have “thrown” their vehicle in front of you suddenly without any indication or warning. Then there is cruelty, injustices, waste while others starve to death, laziness from children while parents work hard, leaving other people’s property damaged after using it and not returning it in the same condition, messy or untidy rooms, others imputing wrong motives or judging based on what they see when they cannot discern righteously, lies, and false accusations. These are a few of my least favourite things. Pretty much everything that is wrong with this world. The world can make us angry every day if we let it or allow for it.
What does God have to say about anger? Within the book of James 1:20 it says “For man's anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires” and if we go on to read James 3:17-18 we learn “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace”. Peace is the opposite of anger. This reflects how all the married couples practiced loving each other by removing anger when it surfaced in their marriage and they then replaced it with wisdom...yielding to one another in peace. No wonder they experienced long, healthy marriages because they dealt with anger the day it occurred — not the next day, but that very day before they went to sleep.
In the world there is much anger fuelled by confusion. Have you noticed that people are becoming more confused as each week goes by? More and more there are astoundingly strange things being accepted as what society should do. It is absolutely incredible that what we are seeing out there seems normal or the “new normal” by so many. This does not make me angry, but repulsed and sad. People are being given over to debased minds and we know that they are deceived by the devil and that is the effect of Satan’s anger (Romans 1:28).
So we see that anger is strongly associated with the devil. The opposite of anger is peace. Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and should be practiced by God’s people so that we become more Christ-like. We identify what is deep within our hearts while we examine ourselves and own what we do, take it all to God in prayer, seek cleansing and forgiveness through His wonderful mercy and ask for a new heart, one that knows how to react when angry and draw from the example set by King David in His heartfelt prayer of repentance found in Psalm 51. You will reap the benefits instead of having foolish ways connected to anger (Ecclesiastes 7:9, Psalm 37:8-9, Proverbs 22-24 and 29:11).