Just before Christmas, Pastor Linda preached a beautiful message about "Peace on Earth". For me, it dove-tailed perfectly with the Bible Study I had just shared in my blog 'Tis the Season. The Lord began to reveal new insights to me that expanded on my previous blog and how her message fit with it. I let all of this simmer through the holidays and finally settled down to study it. The Lord took me from dealing with rejection to dealing with anger.
Did you know that God has emotions? He created us in His image. We have emotions because He has emotions. In that previous blog, I shared how the Lord showed me all the times and ways that He had been rejected. I had asked the Lord how He suffered it all without being moved. God graciously answered me with what I needed to hear at the time... the lesson that I needed to learn. Rejection did not affect who "I AM." That is absolutely true. The lesson that I need now is that rejection did, however, affect God's emotions.
How can both those statements be true? Because God's true being, His identity, is separate from His emotions. The same is true for us. It may not feel true; but it is. Sometimes we feel like we are our emotions... we are what we feel. Not so. Emotions change. Our spirit, our true self, is eternal.
There are many, many accounts in the Old Testament of God's anger being kindled at people's rejection and disobedience. Israel's journey through the wilderness is an ideal example. God was angry with them many times. He actually told Moses that He wanted to kill them all and begin a new nation through His faithful servant. Moses talked Him out of it. I am certain that God knew Moses would before He even made the threat. My point is that all this rejection and disobedience did affect God's emotions and made Him angry.
Pastor Linda preached a very eloquent sermon on how God's wrath was poured out on His Son at Calvary, when Jesus was crucified and all our sins were put on Him. Jesus willingly offered Himself up to be the intersection where our sins and God's wrath collided. That instant ushered in the Dispensation of Grace in which we now live. Peace between God and mankind. Our Father's anger was abated, the price for our sins was permanently paid.
The New Testament speaks much differently of wrath. It only refers to God's wrath as a future event in the day of judgment, and then towards the unrighteous. As a Christian, I can be comforted that I will never face my Father's wrath. As I have meditated over all this in the past few weeks, the Lord has once again invited me to follow His example. My Father made the decision to pour out all of His anger towards people on Jesus at the cross. He has also made the decision to abstain from being wrathful towards His other children. He let the anger poured out at the cross be enough. I have the opportunity to make that same decision. I can let all the wrath that Jesus endured be enough and I can choose to put aside my wrath instead of releasing it on my fellow man. Folks, I'll be brutally honest here, I don't think I can. I know myself, I know my buttons and I know how easily they get pushed. When the Lord revealed this opportunity to me, I saw myself in the future... failing at it... again and again. This is something that I cannot do in my own strength. No way. But... I can do ALL things through Christ, the Anointed One, who strengthens me.
The New Testament confirms this opportunity that our Father has given us by telling us how to deal with anger. The Word teaches us that we can be angry without sinning and it admonishes us to put away wrath. Most importantly, the Bible tells us that our wrath does not work the righteousness of God. If our Father chose to put away His own wrath with man and, instead, grant mercy; for us to pursue wrath towards our fellow man would be to hold our own decision... our own judgment above God's. How could that possibly turn out well for us?
I set forth on this new adventure of putting away anger with a powerful weapon. I have before my spiritual eyes a picture of my precious Savior, on the cross, suffering the penalty of wrath. When I am tempted to lash out at someone in anger, I hope to recall that image and remind myself that Jesus already took the blows for them. And, the next time I find myself being chewed up and spit out by someone in anger, I can know that He took the blows for me too and I don't have to suffer them or be devastated by them.
Father, I recognize that I have the choice of how I respond to others. Mercy or anger. I know that I am not perfect and that I make mistakes. Father, I ask for your help in this: if I err, please help me to err on the side of mercy. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Scripture references:
How to deal with anger: Eph. 4:26-32 and 6:4; Col. 3:8; 1 Tim. 2:8; Jam. 1:19-20.
God's wrath towards Israel: Ex. 32:10-12; Deu. 9:7-8, 22; Heb. 3:11, 4:3 (to name just a few)
God's wrath towards the unrighteous at Judgment (N.T. verses only): Matt. 3:7; Luke 3:7, 21:23; John 3:36; Rom. 2:5-8, 4:15, 9:22, 12:9, 13:4-5; Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6; 1 Thes. 1:10, 2:16, 5:9; Revelation 6:16-17, 11:18, and chapters 14-19.
Photo credit: Copyright 2010 Rick Welch
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