Respectable Sins: Anger

It is the unfortunate reality that our anger is usually directed to those that we are closest to. Why? Because they are the people that we see most often and the easiest targets. We may be upset at something that happened at work. Since we are at work, we can't openly display our anger so we bundle it up, take it home with us at 5:00 p.m. and then proceed to take it out on our family members.

Anger causes an extreme display of emotions. Sometimes we justify our anger. We feel we have the right to be angry at someone or something. That righteous anger is a violation of God's moral law and can always be self-controlled.

We need to face up to our anger and realize that no one else is causing us to be angry. Being angry is a choice. Our pride is a huge cause of our anger along with selfishness and our desire to control.

If we are mistreated, we need to respond by being mindful to God. Start by asking yourself these questions with situations arise:

How would God have me respond in this situation?

How can I best glorify God by my response?

Do I believe that this difficult situation or this unjust treatment is under the sovereign control of God and that in His infinite wisdom and goodness He is using these difficult circumstances to conform me more to the likeness of Christ?

We need to develop this new habit of reflecting on such questions in a heated situation instead of holding onto our anger. Daily, we come into contact with circumstances or actions of other people that tempt us to be angry. But they never cause us to be angry. The cause will always lie within our prideful and selfish hearts.

Handling our angry starts with recognizing and acknowledging the anger we possess and how sinful it is.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:32 to "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." He always writes "...bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive." (Colossians 3:13)

Remember no anger is justified and acceptable to God.  Let's take the first step today recognizing our prideful hearts and forgiving those people and things that made us bitter.

Respectable Sins: Impatience

Impatience is defined by Bridges as a strong sense of annoyance at the (usually) unintentional faults and failures of others. We tend to express our impatience verbally by humiliating the person(s) who is the object of our annoyance.

The key to understanding our impatience is that it's usually a response to an unintentional action of another. I often get annoyed and become impatient by people that walk "too" slow. The people walking slow aren't doing it to purposely annoy me and perhaps they physically can't walk as fast.

God includes patience over and over again in Scripture because He knew we would struggle with it. Patience is a fruit of the spirit. In Ephesian's 4:2 we are told to, "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." 

We need to understand that the cause of our impatience lies within our own hearts. It lies within our own attitude of insisting that others around us should conform to our expectations.

Here's your challenge. Ask your spouse or family member what you're impatient about and as hard it will be (for us stubborn folks) acknowledge those things and repent! Impatience is a sin!