Good Morning All!!
1 Peter 5:8; “Be sober-minded; be
watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking
someone to devour.”
It is sure easy right now. It is
incredibly easy right now. We have seen
airplanes blown up; we have seen innocent people killed and in the most
gruesome way. We listen to spokesmen for
ISIL speak of the “infidel crusaders” and we, in our holy, righteous anger are
ready to respond. After all, we must
defend the faith; we must be ready to fight.
While this feeling or emotion may seem justified, be careful; your adversary
the devil seeks someone to devour.
It is truly amazing how easily we fall into the trap of “holy, righteous
anger.” We see something or hear
something and we become enraged. This is
an outrage that cannot stand. We seek to be God’s avenging angels and we launch
our “holy, righteous anger.” The trouble
is our “holy righteous anger” is really just anger and sin in our life. It is hidden; the devil sneaks up, even feeds
the anger and leads us into sin. We fall
for it so often.
Make no mistake about it; the devil is still more crafty than any other
creature. The devil insinuates himself
within our hearts and minds in the sneakiest ways. Of course we are angry about abortion; it is
murder so our anger burns. We watch a
foreign religion use foreign values and murder people. In our mind we see it as the slaughter of the
innocents of the faithful of God and we have to do something. We must teach them a lesson and our outrage
is fed and the devil laughs. We are not watchful,
we step into the trap and we are soon devoured.
One thing that we often struggle with is the idea of “holy righteous
anger.” We like to think it is a tool
available to us. We look at the Bible
and point to examples of Jesus being angry and making the whip and driving out
the moneychangers in the Temple. We look
to examples in the Bible where God’s anger burns and then destroys evil. We point to this and say, “Yeah that is
right.” Quite to the point, you and I are
not Jesus; you and I are not God. We
must be very, very careful not to assume that we are. For when we claim anger for God, we are
saying we are God.
If we read closely, Jesus never tells his disciples (us) to be
angry. Jesus tells us to love. We are to love each other; we are to have
compassion on all people we meet. We are
not to see anger as a way to express our faith or God’s will in this
world. We are to see anger as something
that is harmful. God invites us to love
as he loves us; we are to forgive as he forgives; we are to be compassionate as
he is. If anger from God is needed, let
God decide the time and method. God
calls us to love, let that be your guide.
Gracious
Father, in my sin I see anger as serving you yet only the devil wins when all
are angry. Guide us by your Spirit to
seek your love and to share the love that you so graciously pour out upon us. Lead me to be your peacemaker. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.