"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice” - Ephesians 4:31 (NIV).
Most of everyone who has used an electric device is familiar with a small piece of machinery that may cause it to stop working, especially if the current is too high. It is called a fuse. The fuse is an essential part of electrical devices acting as a stop gap to wild currents that may cause the break out of fire.
If say an electric flat iron has been carrying too much heat the fuse may blow up. Likewise when our bodies are loaded with so much heat they too can blow up, if just to release all that energy within.
Anger is one current if one carries it for so long which may render a person's fuse to blow up. Anger is energy that needs to be released. If a person has been going around seething with anger, if not channeled out constructively, in the end they may just blow up.
For that reason, for the good of our lives, we should as the Apostle Paul advises, "get rid of bitterness, rage and anger" which is for our good health. Because we do not live in a perfect world with perfect people there will always be something every now and then to upset any of us. But to live a victorous Christian life we must learn to practice the habit of forgiveness instead of holding on to that anger.
Of course sharing is also helpful, but where that avenue is not available, then do forgive as you have been forgiven! "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4: 32).
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, today I free myself of all anger and bitterness, to live a completely victorous life in you, this I pray in Jesus's name.
Related upcoming events
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
