Theme of the Week: Anger into Mercy
Bible Verse: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8
Scripture Reading: James 4: 1-9
Some people say bottling up anger is not healthy, so you should find ways to express how you feel it and get it off your chest. Others say you must control your anger. So, which is it? Venting? Or Calming? If you tried both, you probably ended up wishing there was another way!
There is also God’s way. God knows that both venting or stuffing your anger inside are destructive. He also knows that merely managing or controlling the symptoms will never give us an understanding of the purposes for which God designed anger.
Righteous anger, however, when acknowledged and expressed positively, will do what is good and right. This is God’s way for you.
If God had not designed it that way, we would never stand up for what is right and just, as God requires of us (Micah 6:8). The Bible tells us that God also gets angry. God gets angry at things that are wrong in this world. Your capacity to be angry is an expression of being made in His image. Anger is our God-given capacity to respond to a wrong that we think is important.
The question is: Does what we believe to be important to us align with what is important to God?
James reminds us in his letter that when we want anything, even good things, more than God, we will get angry when we don’t understand or when it’s taken away from us. Often, our expression of anger is communicating a deeper desire, a hurt, a longing inside of us that points to our need for God.
So, change will only begin with your relationship with God. It starts by submitting to God and checking if what we want lines up with His ways. For this reason, James’ advice is to “humble ourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:10). God’s ways are indeed higher than our ways. His economy is backwards to any reaction we may have.
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