12 June 2013 by James Hoh CM-
Most parents are familiar with the computer game “Angry Bird” which the children like to play. While the children are almost addicted to the game, let’s not be too comfortable with it.
Why? Simply because anger is enmity to God. Rage of anger always destroys and leaves untold misery.
In fact, the Book of Proverbs is very strict on this. It tells us not to make friends with people who are prone to anger.
Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go.
(Proverbs 22:24)
A person who is meek does not retain anger in him because he has given up his personal rights to God. Therefore meekness is a tremendous price in God’s sight, it is a friend of God.
Jesus is our perfect role model because he has given up all His REPUTATION as the Son of the Almighty God to come to earth in flesh and blood and be the Son of Man.
There is a cause behind every anger issue and all we need to do is to remove the cause to defuse the anger before it explodes.
The following steps effectively teach Christians how to remove the cause of anger from our lives.
The following is an excerpt from the Building Successful Relationships by The Basic Life Principles Seminar held recently at the New Life Community Church, Subang Jaya.
Removing the Cause of Anger
1. Indentify anger –
The first step is to identify your anger. When was the last time you lost your temper? Most probably, it was someone who violated your personal rights.
Trace back the last time you got angry. For example, someone had kept you waiting because he had not kept his appointment which affected your personal time.
Or someone suddenly cut in at the traffic lights. Does that cause you to react?
2. List personal rights –
Grab a pen and list down these incidents. Most of the time, the things that cause us to be angry are that which violate our personal rights. How do we get rid of our personal rights then? Transfer them to God.
3. Transfer our rights to God – this is from the Bible.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Philippians 2:5-8
We need to write down every of our personal rights and place them on the altar. They include our friendships, marriage, children, career, time, right to appreciation, hobbies, opinions, interests, ministries, money, sleep, eating habits, reputation, cars and other processions. Pray and give unto God every listed item.
4. Fulfill responsibilities
We must yield our rights to God and focus on fulfilling the responsibilities given to us according to our statue and position. For example, we may dedicate our children to God but it is our responsibilities as parents to teach and train them and to bring them up responsibly. We must not demand our right to be respected as a father but by fulfilling our responsibilities as our fatherly role, we do what is right in the sight of God. We will earn the respect of your children any way.
5. Balance expectations
Let us illustrate this: If we have been eating lunch everyday and the church requires us to fast and pray at tomorrow’s lunchtime. Since we have given up our rights to God to have lunch, therefore everyday’s lunch is seen as a privilege we enjoy. Therefore when we fast, it is merely a privilege withdrew from us. And when God wants us to eat, we should thank God for the privilege.
6. Recognize privilege
The key to know if we have given up everything to God is to see if we can give thanks and be grateful to God for whatever consequences that happen. For example: If you have given God your house, if the house actually burns down due to accident, you can still thank God for it!
Then Jesus said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Luke 9:23
Self-denial is restricting some rights or privileges but denying self is giving God everything that belongs to us.
7. Use other anger issue to detect unyielded rights
Meekness is taking everything and placing them on the altar. They are not yours anymore. We will see God doing very powerful things in our lives.
Testimony:
Bill Gothard saved money as a college student to buy a car but his car broke down on a highway one night and while he was restarting his car, a truck hit right into his car because the truck driver couldn’t see his car. Since he has given up his car to God earlier, he received six different cars from friends and strangers not too long after his accident.
Dear Viewers in Christ, if you find this article edifying to you, please share with your friends or loved ones by using the social media plugs (Share, Email to this article). The Lord will surely bless you as you bless others. May the Lord’s peace and love be with you.
Picture reference:
http://quickbase.intuit.com/blog/2012/10/10/expressing-emotions-at-work-fear-and-anger/
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