My devotion that I'm reading through is titled "Battlefield of the Mind" and it's all about how Satan can get into your head and play mind games with you. And yesterday's reading was about, you guessed it, anger. Anger is something that I don't deal with a ton, I try to resolve issues as quickly as possible. I think I would define anger a bit differently than most and say that being angry is different than being mad. I've been mad, and I've been angle, but in my head, mad is something you get in the heat of the moment, and if it's not dealt with it can turn into anger.
Anger is mad, but longer.
As I said, I've been mad, I don't always react well to bad news, or someone confronting me with something, or if someone has decided to force their opinion on me if I don't agree with it, and even if someone is mad at me. I've learned a couple of things to do when this happens...1- I need to shut up fast. Since I don't always react well to confrontations, I tend to say things that I might regret later, so now, if I feel a situation is running in that direction, I just clam up and try to remove myself from the situation as quickly as I can. The second thing I've learned is that I need to deal with that issue as soon as possible, the apostle Paul put it better in Ephesians 4:26,27 "“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold."
I tend to dwell on things and I'd rather the things I dwell on be good things, hence the verse I put at the beginning of this entry. I believe we can train our mind to think and react better when issues arise, and we do it when we start by conciously thinking about things that are good, noble, praisworthy and honorable, and then we find we are unconciously thinking in that direction.
I did a quick search about what holding on to anger can do to us and the first page I found gave several effects of anger, and none of them were good. The thing I've most come to realize is that anger rarely hurts the person we're angry at, by being angry at someone it doesn't cause them to have high blood pressure, headaches, acid reflux, or any of the other effects on that page, those affect the person who is holding on to that anger.
I know there is some sort of perverse comfort in holding on to anger, but it's not doing what you might think it is. That "comfort" is Satan messing with your head. Do not give the devil a foothold! Keep him out!
I want to share two things with you; first is a card I received this week, here is the cover...
This was from a student at a school I wasn't able to get to this year, it's actually the school we were at when I hurt my ankle. It made me laugh and I hope it makes you laugh too.
The other thing I want to share is a hymn; "Be Thou My Vision" and I'm listening to the "Be Thou My Vision: Celtic Hymns" so it's got a Celtic feel to it, which I like a lot.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
naught be all else to me, save that thou art;
Thou my best thought by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
Be thou my wisdom, thou my true word,
I ever with thee and thou with me Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.
Be thou my battle shield, sword for the fight;
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight;
Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tower:
Raise thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:
Thou mine inheritance now and always;
Thou and thou only first in my heart;
High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.
High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O Bright Heaven's sun!;
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
If we make God our vision, by day and by night, if He's our best thought, that's the biggest step we can make toward getting anger out of our life. If you are holding onto anger, let it go. Talk with the person you're angry with, but talk with them, hold a conversation, don't talk at them and attack them.
God bless you!
No comments:
Post a Comment