Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father remind us that He is holy, and that as He is holy, we are to be holy. Father, you are unique. You are apart from all other things. There is no one and nothing like you. And you have set us apart from all other people and all other things, for yourself. May we answer your call to live holy lives that please you. In the name of Jesus please search our hearts for any offensive thing in us and lead us in your everlasting way. Amen!
Your Morning Song: "Lord, I Need You" by Matt Maher
Your Morning Scripture: Ecclesiastes 7:9
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,
for anger lodges in the heart of fools.
...
Anger itself is not bad, similar to physical desire. But it, like so many of the other deep stirrings of the deepest parts of our hidden hearts, it is difficult to express rightly, and all too easy to express selfishly, wickedly, wrongly.
We should be careful with our anger. There are times, certainly, when our anger mirrors the righteous anger of God. But those times are rare, and we should not claim to be righteously angry just to excuse ourselves.
What happens to us when we are angry? Do we yell? Do we throw something? Hit something? Lash out in some way? Or do we turn to God and ask Him to help us? We should not indulge our anger and allow our broiling emotions to blind us to God's presence as we rage. We should present ourselves, not just our anger, but our whole self, to God and invite Him to help us. Perhaps our anger does mirror His. Perhaps we do need to be upset. But it is more likely that our pride has been offended, our feelings hurt.
It is not a sin to be angry, but it is so easy to sin when angry. And that is why our first response when we are angry should be, by the Spirit's guiding, to look to our Heavenly Father who, by the work of the Son, eagerly listens to our call for help. God will always help us with our anger if we turn it over to Him.
We must resist the urge to "self-medicate" our anger by lashing out, grumbling, and indulging in the fiery, emotional burn of how we feel. We, especially us men, but all of us, need to be wary of ourselves. We must not habitually act on our anger inappropriately. When we do, we are ignoring who God is and mocking His holiness, which He has called us to imitate.
I will not lash out verbally or physically to express myself. I will put my anger in God's hands. I will entrust my frustration to the Lord, and He will take it from me. He will free me from it. I am never alone in my anger. God is always with me to help me. I am without excuse. I must not become like a volcano, erupting when the pressure of unreleased anger and frustration becomes too much for me. My anger is never too much for God.
If you'd like to see just how seriously God takes inappropriate displays of anger, go look for the answer to this question. Why were both Moses and Aaron not allowed to enter into the Promised Land? (hint: Numbers 20:1-13)
May we be a people known as
"Wary of Themselves and of God"
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