ANGER

Matthew 5:21-26

"You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny."

I know what you are thinking...how can he pay the first penny much less the last when he is locked in a jail house?

Think on this for a minute...aren't we in reality, locked in a jailhouse with our anger? We have the right be angry as long as we don't let the sun go down on the anger. I don't always follow what I am told to do either. The sun has gone down too many times with my anger still raging. No, of course, that don't mean I am right. I am certainly in the wrong here.

The instructions in the Bible is for every believer. I've been told that depression is anger turned inside. Is that true? I have no idea. My anger don't stay turned inside and that isn't Godly at all.

How many people are we still angry with at this time? What has all this anger helped in any given situation? Well, I just don't know. It has broken up families, friends and loved ones. Even those who would have been a good friend. We will never know. Does it really make us feel good or happy? Don't we always have an excuse as to why we won't get over it? Like maybe, they over stepped their authority or they started it.

Is this what God really wants from this children? All we have to do is look at the scripture above and we are told that it isn't. What are we going to do about getting rid of the anger? Are we going to let it continue or are we willing to obey what our Father has told us we should do? Again, the choice is ours.

Let us pray that God will continue to show us the way out of the mud hole that we find ourselves in. Then maybe we will be able to see that this could be the cause of all the troubles we are encountering in our lives.

God's blessing to each of you,

LJG/rECj