- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Messages
- 18,404
Anger management (5)
'for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires' JAMES 1:20
So what do you do, when you know all the theory (ie it's better to forgive and forget than spray paint, 'you messed up my life, dung-face' all over their front door) but you're still struggling to apply it? Well we need to check in with the black-belt of forgiveness, Himself: Jesus Christ. He's the man who didn't wait for us to come crawling back, tail between our legs, before He started to think about putting things right. He took the initiative.
Listen: 'When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son...' (Romans 5:10). Did you get that? Even when we were off doing our own thing, sticking our two fingers up at God, He'd put the plan in place to fix the relationship back together. Here's the 'forgiveness' master. He paid the price before we've even said the 'sorry'. So, you might not have even started to sort this whole mess out. They might still see you as the enemy, even though you've done nothing wrong.
What an opportunity for you to practice forgiveness by God's standards. Try forgiving them right now, even if they don't seem sorry. Erase those fantasies involving their falling in front of double-decker buses from your mind. Picture all the steps you could do to make this relationship work. Become an expert in forgiveness and a thicko in hatred. Take the forgiveness initiative.
written by Bob Gass
'for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires' JAMES 1:20
So what do you do, when you know all the theory (ie it's better to forgive and forget than spray paint, 'you messed up my life, dung-face' all over their front door) but you're still struggling to apply it? Well we need to check in with the black-belt of forgiveness, Himself: Jesus Christ. He's the man who didn't wait for us to come crawling back, tail between our legs, before He started to think about putting things right. He took the initiative.
Listen: 'When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son...' (Romans 5:10). Did you get that? Even when we were off doing our own thing, sticking our two fingers up at God, He'd put the plan in place to fix the relationship back together. Here's the 'forgiveness' master. He paid the price before we've even said the 'sorry'. So, you might not have even started to sort this whole mess out. They might still see you as the enemy, even though you've done nothing wrong.
What an opportunity for you to practice forgiveness by God's standards. Try forgiving them right now, even if they don't seem sorry. Erase those fantasies involving their falling in front of double-decker buses from your mind. Picture all the steps you could do to make this relationship work. Become an expert in forgiveness and a thicko in hatred. Take the forgiveness initiative.
written by Bob Gass
