The Peace of Christ
(Another beautiful morning where God graced us with his creativity and speaking His love to us through nature)
Anger is one of my strongholds. I struggle with allowing my emotions to get a hold of me and to act based on how I feel rather than how I should. Proverbs 16:32 says "Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city." This is definitely something I strive toward, being more patient and not allowing anger to flood in.
The last time I checked, nothing productive came out of me being angry. Things seem to work worse when I get angry, which makes me more angry! When I am going to learn that anger does nothing for me except invite the devil into my life? (Ephesians 4:27). I get all flooded with anger for prideful and controlling reasons: not feeling heard, needing to defend my position, to set something straight.
I need to take off the old (anger and pride) and put on the new (patience and self-control) (Colossians 3:9-10). How I am I supposed to do that, how can I just let it go? Through Christ, that's how, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. 2 Corinthians 10:4 says "the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world, on the contrary they have divine power to demolish strongholds." God's weapons are love, prayer, and truth. If we are really loving our neighbor with the kind of love God describes, we are not going to allow our anger to hurt them. Verse 5 continues to say "we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." When I feel this overwhelming, physiological sensation of anger, the thoughts of defense and pride can be demolished by God right then and there. I need to turn fast to prayer with God and take captive those angry thoughts before they escape my unruly mouth and hurt someone.
By prayer God will give me the peace I need. The truth of His word will set me free from my need for pride, defense, or control. "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts" (Colossians 4:15). With God and with time He will teach me to do this. The next passage continues to explain how to do it. I need to be thankful, be in community to learn and teach others about Christ's word, worship Him, and serve others in the name of Jesus. The next time the devil is trying to invite himself in, he is going to stop at the threshold because I am going to keep my thoughts captive in the name of Jesus!
I think God reveals so much to you in your children. I see my bad habits shine through in my kids. They say "No Spike" in the exact same tone I use to make him stop barking. They growl "grrrr" when they are inconvenienced and have to go back upstairs or outside because they forgot something. They even put Zig in timeout and tell him No, when he hits, and they often do it in anger and in not a very atttractive way. I often get onto them and then later recognize that God just performed a skit for me through them to show me how I need to get my anger under control or it is going to run rampant in our family. I have noticed that I never really developed much self-control growing up and as God tries to help me get this area under control I am helpless without constantly being int he word, maybe not reading the bible, but reciting scripture in my head, listening to praise music, or just saying "Jesus" over and over. I can't expect my kids to ever control their anger if I can't model how to control my own, nor will they have much respect for someone who lacks the self-control that I am requiring of them.
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