Good morning,
These days we are living in a world bubbling with anger. The middle east is covered with angry armies fighting with one another, as terrified refugees filled with fear and anger spread all over the rest of the world. Now it’s commonplace to see pictures of politicians fighting with one another with words and fists in formerly peaceful countries all over the world. Sadly we are also seeing supposedly Christian schools and churches getting involved with angry leaders and politicians. These leaders encouraging those they lead to fight anger with anger with the promise of a peaceful outcome. The spirit of darkness is descending like a dense fog all around us. This may be new to us but is not new to all the generations that have gone before us. Ungodly anger has been a part of life for all the generations before us from Cain to today.
Paul was helping the Ephesians deal with fear and anger when he gave them God’s guidelines to protect them from the darkness that was all around them. He pointed out that freedom from the control of anger and fear begins with a living relationship with Jesus and a wholehearted dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. (Eph. 4:23) He gives them and us a positive that would be best defined by what we didn’t do because the Holy Spirit did the impossible in and through us. He wrote, Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. It is only the power of the Holy Spirit who will give us the heart and strength to live like Jesus lived. The only way we can live the right way is to act and react in a negative environment by the power of God. Understanding holiness and obeying God’s guidelines can only be accomplished if that is what our hearts long for as we go through each day. We will know we are on the right track when we stop telling lies. The only way to do that is to recognize a lie when we tell it. It’s the Holy Spirit who will remind us of what just happened. Next, we will tell our neighbors the truth. We have been trained to shade the truth to protect ourselves while God’s Spirit helps us to say what is true within his loving guidelines. Finally he warns us about anger itself. Anger that goes on day after day isn’t godly anger. Sinful anger is controlling us when anger pops up again long after the event that started our anger. He gives us a day to struggle with the anger and then helps us to get it sorted out his way and go on serving him. Lord, please give us your peace as we live out our days in this anger filled world.
Ephesians 4:23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. 25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. 26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.
Roy Wisner
