Psalm 4:3 - 5
Psalm 4:3 - 5
Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;
the LORD will hear when I call to him.
In your anger do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.
Selah
Offer right sacrifices
and trust in the LORD.
People do annoying things in the break room at work. They take the last cup of coffee and don’t make a new pot. They take out a new plastic sleeve of Styrofoam cups, tear a small hole in the top of the plastic, take out a cup, and leave the rest of the cups sitting in the sleeve for the next person to wrestle with. They put things on top of the box of teabags, so the tea drinkers (that would be me) have to move the things to get their teabags. It’s annoying.
But one morning this past week, I felt a flash of genuine anger when I found a pile of blue fake-sugar packets sitting on the teabag box. I scooped up all the packets and was ready to fling them in the trash, just to get them out of my way, when I realized my anger was telling me that something was wrong. I took a breath, then got a cup from the stack of cups (still with the plastic sleeve pushed down around the bottom cups) and tucked the blue packets inside it while I tried to calm down.
I don’t know why I was angry. There was nothing in my life that was suddenly worse than it was the week before, but the anger was here anyway. It may just be that I’ve been tired, but even so, that anger is still about me: Other people put their stuff in my way. And that’s the wrong kind of anger.
God wants my anger to be fueled by righteousness, not by petty selfishness. He wants me to feel passion for the things He is passionate about. He wants my heart to break over things that break His heart. He wants me to be holy and set apart for Him and His use.
And He wants me to trust Him, to live in faith that even when life is challenging or annoying or painful, He has my best interest in mind. But this incident in the break room was a good reminder that my trust and my heart are not where the Lord wants them to be.
Where is your heart? What are the things that stir up your anger? Let us bring our wrong attitudes to the One who is Faithful and True.
Brenda
Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;
the LORD will hear when I call to him.
In your anger do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.
Selah
Offer right sacrifices
and trust in the LORD.
People do annoying things in the break room at work. They take the last cup of coffee and don’t make a new pot. They take out a new plastic sleeve of Styrofoam cups, tear a small hole in the top of the plastic, take out a cup, and leave the rest of the cups sitting in the sleeve for the next person to wrestle with. They put things on top of the box of teabags, so the tea drinkers (that would be me) have to move the things to get their teabags. It’s annoying.
But one morning this past week, I felt a flash of genuine anger when I found a pile of blue fake-sugar packets sitting on the teabag box. I scooped up all the packets and was ready to fling them in the trash, just to get them out of my way, when I realized my anger was telling me that something was wrong. I took a breath, then got a cup from the stack of cups (still with the plastic sleeve pushed down around the bottom cups) and tucked the blue packets inside it while I tried to calm down.
I don’t know why I was angry. There was nothing in my life that was suddenly worse than it was the week before, but the anger was here anyway. It may just be that I’ve been tired, but even so, that anger is still about me: Other people put their stuff in my way. And that’s the wrong kind of anger.
God wants my anger to be fueled by righteousness, not by petty selfishness. He wants me to feel passion for the things He is passionate about. He wants my heart to break over things that break His heart. He wants me to be holy and set apart for Him and His use.
And He wants me to trust Him, to live in faith that even when life is challenging or annoying or painful, He has my best interest in mind. But this incident in the break room was a good reminder that my trust and my heart are not where the Lord wants them to be.
Where is your heart? What are the things that stir up your anger? Let us bring our wrong attitudes to the One who is Faithful and True.
Brenda
posted by BreadBakers at 12:57 PM
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