Jump Start # 3448

James 1:20 “for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

There is a lot of anger in the air these days. The war in Israel has brought out the worst in people. Protests are becoming mobs filled with angry people. Hatred toward Jews has escalated more than 400% in the past few weeks.  Politicians are snapping at one another. Blame and finger pointing seem to be the norm these days. You don’t see many people walking around with smiles on their faces.

And, that brings us to our verse today. The Bible has a lot to say about anger, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. And, throughout the Bible we find many angry people. King Saul was throwing spears at young David. Moses left Pharaoh in “hot anger” Exodus tells us. Naaman walked away fuming when things didn’t go the way he expected. Jonah was angry that Nineveh was given a second chance. And, the prodigal’s brother was angry and unwilling to welcome his lost brother back.

There is two immediate problems with anger:

First, what anger does to us. Our verse shows us the bottom line. Anger doesn’t help us in our walk with the Lord. We don’t become our best when we are thinking the worst. It’s hard to be around someone that you are angry with. And, when we are angry it’s hard to move off that island. We keep rewinding the pain and that keeps the wounds open.

Second, what anger leads us to doing to others. Not only does anger destroy our insides, but it has a masterful way of wrecking our outsides, especially our relationships with others. When we are angry, we feel compelled to tell someone else. We lash out with words that often should never be said. When angry we quickly turn to the revenge mode and start thinking, saying and planning ways to get back at the other person.

Anger doesn’t achieve the righteousness of God. Anger doesn’t make us stand tall.

Here are three quick reminders that can help:

First, try not to speak when angry. That’s hard. We want to snap back. We want to set the record straight. We increase the volume and speed of our talking. We stop listening and default to the attack mode. Bite your tongue. Try to refrain from talking because most often we don’t talk, we explode. And, it is very hard to recover after that. You can apologize, but the damage has been done. Your reputation has taken a hit and you lost value with the person you are angry with.

Second, don’t stay in a heated situation, it will only make you boil on the inside. Sometimes you just have to walk away from things. Sometimes it is best to talk about the subject when both parties are calm and can reason. Be a thermostat in life. When things are too hot, try to cool things down. When things are too icy, try to warm the atmosphere up. It takes two to argue and if you are not engaging in that, the argument soon ends.

Third, don’t make a quick decision when mad. Most times those decisions are not thought out. We react based upon emotion and not logic. We let our heart and not our head lead us. I’ve seen people walk out of a church building in the middle of a sermon. I’ve heard of brethren getting in fist fights. The Corinthians were taking each other to court. Anger will push us to doing things that we may long regret later on.

The Ephesians were told, “be angry and do not sin.” James says to be slow to anger. Build a long, long fuse to your heart.

Achieving the righteousness of God ought to be important to us. Anger isn’t the road that will get us there. So, find the exit and get off that road as quickly as you can. Turn around and follow the Lord.

Roger

Jump Start # 2527

James 1:20 “for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

I was watching the President’s State of the Union speech last week. And, as everyone is talking about, at the end, the Speaker of the House ripped her copy of his speech in front of everyone. That sent shockwaves because nothing like that had ever been done. There is a lot of tension and bad feelings between the two and what she did takes us to our thoughts today.

Anger doesn’t put us in a good place with God. And, anger before others is something that people long remember. Children will remember when mom and dad got into a screaming argument. Decades may pass, but the memory remains. People remember when brethren got upset with each other in church. Someone shouted at another. Some left. Doors were slammed. Those impressions stay with a person for a long, long time. People can kiss and make up, and move on with their lives, but deep inside, those dark moments of anger are remembered.

Here are some things to consider:

First, while we may have gotten over things, those around us may not. They picked up on our anger. They heard our words. We may be ok, but those who witnessed the ugliness of the battle may not be ok. They may be ruined. They may be finished with the people we had a problem with. They may never want to go back to that congregation where once there was shouting, ugliness and hatred.

Slow to speak and slow to anger are words that James uses to demonstrate how we are to behave as God’s people. The emotions of anger gets a person saying things that he shouldn’t say. It’s hard to pick up the pieces once you’ve let those words fly out of your mouth. You can say, “I didn’t mean it,” but if that’s true, then why did you say it?

Second, when others see our anger, they often only see our side of the story. There are always two sides. We believe our side is right. But sometimes, it’s not. Those around us only hear our side. Emotions running wild, things being said that shouldn’t be said, accusations being made, it’s easy for someone to be pulled into something that isn’t actually true. We may be at fault. We may be in the wrong. However, our actions and tantrums, can stir up a mob spirit that leads to others saying and doing things to bring about fairness and justice.

Third, for younger eyes and hearts, they are seeing an example, even though it may be a bad example, of what to do when one is upset. Getting all worked up and thinking the worst of others certainly isn’t the direction that God wants us to go. Life can be cruel. People can be mean. Showing others what and how to conduct ourselves is a lesson that may stay with them for a long time. God expects us to be under control. Self control, or the control of self, is one of the virtues that Peter tells us to add to our faith. Out of control—we know what that’s like. An out of control car is spinning around and around like a top. The driver is along for the ride. An out of control temper is just like that. The person is along for the ride. The temper, the emotions, the words, the actions—one has no idea where this will land.

We remember the example of Jesus, when threats were made, He uttered none back. He was silent. There was a time to speak and a time to be silent. And the Lord knew those times.

Fourth, all the good that we believe in and stand for can go out the window when others witness our moments of rage. All the good that has been accomplished seems to be tossed out the window when one loses it emotionally. Our value and our influence goes down rapidly when people see us explode with anger. Outbursts of anger is considered one of the works of the flesh. All it takes is one time, and people will remember. That memory of you losing your cool, will come back to haunt you years later. When men are being considered for leadership roles in the church, and your name is suggested, someone will mention the time you blew up in anger. That memory is all it takes to convince some that you don’t have what it takes to lead the people of God.

Fifth, as our verse tells us, anger doesn’t get us anywhere with God. It’s not righteous. It’s not what God wants. Anger opens the door to the devil. It invites hatred, violence and bitterness to come into our hearts and lives. It ruins our character, shatters our influence and sets a bad example before others. The people of God are to be righteous, even when they are upset. Even when things do not go their way.

Anger before others—that’s something we must put some thought behind. Little eyes see us. Big eyes see us. His eyes see us. The damage done through anger can take a lifetime to get over. Our actions, our words are seen by others. All the good that we preach and all the good that we want done, can be lost because people see us in unkind, angry moments. It makes some wonder if we are hypocrites in those dark moments.

Be angry, the Ephesians were told, but do not sin. That’s the key. Angry without having to apologize later for what was said. Angry but not leaving a trail of destruction. Angry and not leaving the wrong impression or bad example before others.

Angry—others are watching. Remember that.

Roger

Jump Start # 2343

James 1:20 “for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

Our verse is a necessary reminder. Anger can get the best of us. It can even get the best of the best among us. This verse follows the quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger reminder that God tells us. Be slow to anger and anger does not get you anywhere with God.

Anger is an interesting emotion. It can come upon someone so quickly. It is an immediate reaction. Most do not plan on being angry, it just happens. It explodes upon us and in a instant it can change the course of a day, ruin the moment and lead us to things that we later regret.

I’ve heard most of my life that redheads are quick to anger. My hair doesn’t look red these days, but when I was a kid, it sure was. Then I also heard that German backgrounds are also quick to anger. My family heritage is German. Redheaded and German is just an easy way to hide behind the fact that a person chooses to be angry. That’s the point James is making. Being quick to hear is a choice. Being slow to speak is a choice. Being slow to anger is a choice. It’s controlling your spirit and not allowing the outside to influence the insides and not allowing circumstances to determine your reaction to things. Forget the hair color. Forget your ancestry. There weren’t very many redheaded Germans in the Bible lands in the first century. All of this is a choice. It’s a matter of controlling your spirit, your tongue and your reaction.

There a lots of things that can get us angry. My wife and I were in a grocery store parking lot the other day. We saw a van back into and hit a car. The van just took off. I couldn’t believe it. The lady didn’t get out to see if there was any damage. She didn’t leave a note. She hit hard enough that others heard it. I’m sure the person coming out and seeing a scratch on their fender was going to be mad. A few days later, I was going out to my car in a parking lot, and it looked like the same thing happened to me. There was a scratch on the front and no one around and no note. We get mad at the way some drive. We get mad at poor service. We get mad at having to wait, whether on the kids, our spouse, in the doctor’s office, or in traffic. We get mad when things don’t work right. We get mad when something we bought arrives broken. We get mad at politics. We get mad when our favorite team plays bad. We get mad at others. We get mad at ourselves.

In the movies, when people are mad, they go and get revenge. It makes it seem like justice is served. We sit there watching that and feel great that the bad guys got their due. But what does all of that teach us? Will we do the same when we are angry? Will we unload on someone who is simply trying to do their job? Will we use ugly words and scream at someone? Will we make the situation worse? Will we make such a mess that we have to go and apologize later?

In Ephesians, the subject of anger is dealt with. There it says do not let the sun go down upon your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity. You’d think anger was something special for our times. We tend to be a society that walks around with chips on their shoulders. Say the wrong thing and someone will yell words that will make the wallpaper peel. But anger isn’t an American thing. It was a problem then and it’s a problem now.

There are some things that helps:

First, you cannot control what happens to you. You cannot control the way people will drive, act or respond to things. Since most of the world doesn’t follow Jesus, they are not concerned about anger. They don’t care if they cuss you out, get in your face and explode in unhealthy manner. Many are inviting the devil into their lives daily because of their anger. Even if you stayed in bed all day, there’d be something that happens that is beyond your control.

Second, while you cannot control what happens to you, you do control the insides of you. The outsides do not have to touch the insides. You can be reasonable even though things are not right and you are upset. You do not have to allow your emotions to conquer you and get the best of you. Faith has much to do with this. Becoming like Jesus has much to do with this. In the big picture, many of these things do not matter. A scratch on my car will be forgotten in a few years. No, it’s not right. No, someone should have let me know what they did. But they didn’t. I can let that event redefine the rest of my life and I can tell everyone that I meet about it, or I can let it go, fix it the best I can and realize it’s just a car. Now, some things are much more serious. A mate that has been having an affair. A child that was abused or bullied. Someone that stole your identity. Those are serious issues and sins. They take more faith not to be destroyed and overcome by them. But even those things do not have to make us lose control and invite Satan into our hearts.

Third, the righteousness of God is lost when we allow anger to take over. Jesus tells us in His sermon to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. With anger, I am no longer seeking first God’s righteousness. I have allowed a situation to return me to my former ways. Righteousness means to be right. When a person is not right, they are wrong. Anger puts me out of bounds with God. Anger is not like God. The thoughts are not kind as they ought to be. I do not feel like praying for the other person. I do not wish well for the other person. My attention is upon how I have been hurt and how the person that caused it needs to pay. Multiple Bible passages such as how Jesus suffered (1 Pet 2), leaving room for the vengeance of God (Rom 12), the golden rule (Mt 7), all remind us that in a instant I can lose all the ground that I have gained with God. Thoughts of suing enter the mind. Thoughts of violence enter the mind. Thoughts of doing something wicked back enter the mind. And, not one of those thoughts are right.

Fourth, what really angers me the most is how anger can turn me back into the person I tried to leave. I don’t like having those thoughts about others. I don’t like the fiery feeling that burns in the heart when I am angry. I don’t like looking back and realizing that I said things that I wish I hadn’t. It angers me what anger does to me. So, we must get a hold on it. We must not let it overcome us. We must be in control. The mind must master the heart. The will must master the emotions. Faith must run deep within us. And, in time it works. It does. You find yourself catching that burning feeling in you and you immediately put it out. You catch yourself wanting to say something and you don’t. You catch yourself and that’s faith, will and mind staying in control. Too many allow what happens to them to dictate how they feel. Something bad happens and they explode. They justify it because something bad happened. Their day is up and down. Happy and angry. It all depends upon what happens to them. The wind blows this way and they react to that. The wind shifts and their reaction shifts. They are really out of control. Circumstances and others are determining how they feel and how they act. They follow whatever happens to them. They are reactionary.

For the child of God, it’s totally different. He knows how he is supposed to be. Certainly bad things will happen. Storms, wind and floods come upon his house, but it has a different foundation. He is following the Lord. The Lord is his example. There are things that upsets him. There are things that are not right. There are times he even gets angry. But he doesn’t lose his cool. He doesn’t lose his focus. His mind, will and faith are always in the pilot seat of his heart. As he grows in Christ, fewer and fewer things upset him. Traffic, becomes an opportunity to pray. When people are late and he must wait, he finds useful things to do. When things break, he finds ways to make it right. He doesn’t close his eyes to wrong, but he doesn’t go Rambo either. He finds positive ways to make things right. He remembers at all times, and especially around people of the world, that he is a light and he is salt.

Anger does not achieve the righteousness of God. What does achieve the righteousness of God? Godly living. Grace and forgiveness. Acting like Jesus. Walking by faith. Being in control of our selves.

All of this sure makes a person look in the mirror, doesn’t it.

Roger

Jump Start # 1651

James 1:20 “for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” 

  Anger—it’s the poison of our attitude and the destroyer of our soul. Our verse tells us that anger doesn’t accomplish goodness with God. The previous verse in James reminds us to be slow to anger. Far too often, we know just the opposite of slow to anger. We use expressions like, “short fuse” to describe the person that blows up easily. The Ephesians were told to not let the sun go down on their anger. They were also told to put away anger, along with wrath, clamor and slander—the words and the behaviors that seem to follow anger.

Anger, upset, mad, fuming, ready to explode  – it happens at home. It happens while we drive, road rage. It happens at work. It even happens sometimes at church. We get mad for dozens of reasons. Some seem justifiable. But even then, anger stirs our insides and it leaves us in a mess. We can’t eat because we are mad. We can’t get it off our mind, so we toss and turn all night long. We feel compelled to tell everyone we know about how unfair we’ve been treated. Sometimes, it seems, a person is upset with a product, a corporation, an insurance company or the government. They feel like David facing the giant. They are just one little peon facing a major corporation that will never change. Anger.

It seems that some like to be angry. I’m not sure why, but they always seem to be upset. It sure appears that they stay that way most times. Much of the movies and music today are angry. Anger feeds into violence and we see the extreme of that almost every week now. Someone shoots another person because they are mad and upset.

Being calm is hard to do when your world seems to be collapsing around you. I used a verse in one of my sermons yesterday. Psalms 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Other translations use the expression, “cease striving.” The expression, Be still, comes from the Latin word for vacate. It seems that God is giving us permission to take a vacation from being God. Let God be God. Let God run the world. Be still. Cease striving. Calm down. Take a breath.

It might help to remember:

1. This life is not fair. It’s not. That won’t help  your situation. That won’t put you in a better mood. But what we often want is for the order of things to be turned so things are right. Some things will never be right, not on this side of life. God will iron out all the wrinkles at the judgment. He will make things right. But between now and then, unfairness, favoritism, double standards, dishonesty and cheating may prevail. Donald Trump has says that the system is “rigged.” It may be. We may want to right those wrongs, but in this world that may not happen. So, you may not get the job that you are qualified for. You may not get the scholarship. You may not get what you have worked hard for. Life is not fair. You have worked hard, paid your dues and expect to be rewarded for that. You may not be. Heaven is on the other side of life, not this side.

2. Not everyone cares about what is fair or right. Things may be fixed because that is the way those in charge want it to be. That upsets us. Corporate heads may make life harder for employees near the bottom of the rung. It is not uncommon for some to declare, “they don’t care about us.” That may be true. Under cover Boss is a great TV show, but in many places the boss doesn’t care about you. That’s enough to make you mad and worse, turn you into the same way.

3. God knows. That’s the redeeming value in all of this. God knows. He knows about sparrows. He knows about the hairs on your head. He knows when someone gives a cup of cold water to another. He knows what you go through in a day. We wish and we want vast armies of angels to sweep down and right all of these wrongs. That probably won’t happen. God is more concerned about how these wrongs are affecting you. They can build character. They can bring the good out of you. They can lead you to help others. Since God knows, then pray. Since God knows, seek His counsel. Since God knows, turn to His word. You are not forgotten, nor alone. You, with prayer, can accomplish more than a whole corporation.

4. Staying within the boundaries of what is right, influence change. Do what you can to make things better. Instead of waiting for someone to change this or looking for a knight on a white horse to come in and save the day, you begin where you can and do what you can. Understand, this is risky. You put your self out there and those that resist change may take pot shots at you. But if it’s good and right, take that chance. Do it not just for your sake, but for those around you. They may lack courage. They may not stand with you when the chips are down. But you, move forward, do what you can.

Staying angry and telling others who cannot do anything about what upsets you, doesn’t accomplish much. Anger, we started off with, doesn’t accomplish the righteousness of God. Anger isn’t the way that God wants you to go. A moment of anger can destroy years of good. People will remember your angry moments for a long time. The angry person says things that he shouldn’t. It’s hard to take those words back. The angry person often does things without thinking. Those things are hard to fix. The pulpit isn’t the place for someone to stand when they are angry. It usually gets messy when that happens.

Anger, like most emotions, must be kept under control. Like a mighty horse, when bridled and trained, it can win the Kentucky Derby. But, like that horse, when out of control, it takes the rider for a scary ride. Under control. Be angry, yet do not sin. That’s the key.

I hope this helps.

Roger

Jump Start # 1106

James 1:20 “for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

  I’ve been doing some thinking about anger. Odd topic to think about. I’m working on a sermon about anger. One of the things I’ve discovered is that we don’t THINK about anger, we just get angry. There are different degrees of anger, and we can feel those in ourselves. What some may call “being upset” others may label as a mild form of anger. High prices, especially of gas, upset us. Buying things and then finding out it doesn’t work, upsets us. Kids calling from school because they forgot a paper or book, this is after we reminded them, upsets us. Having appointments cancelled upsets us. Upsets are typically short lived and we get over them. Most of us can not remember what upset us five years ago. We don’t keep “upsets” stored in our memory file.

But that’s not the extent of anger. It intensifies. What others do can really make us angry. The feeling that you were taken advantage of, ripped off, made fun of, teased beyond the limits, or even hurt, can make us explode with words we would never normally say and even violent actions. Anger is like a volcano inside of us. It can erupt and spew all kinds of nastiness upon those around. I’ve seen people storm out of stores angry. I’ve seen fingers pointed in the face of others. In sports, the level of competition is so high that competitors often blow up. In baseball, a batter charges the pitcher’s mound. In hockey, the gloves fly off as the fists start swinging. In motorsports, drivers will throw their helmets at a car they think is responsible for knocking them out of the race.

Our verse today follows the godly principle of being quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger. Then he adds, anger does not accomplish anything pleasing to God. It does not make us more Christ-like. It doesn’t put noble thoughts into our minds. It doesn’t make our faith grow stronger. No, anger does just the opposite. We lose ground with anger. What often follows is a series of apologies because we said things that we should not have. That’s what anger does.

Much too often, we get the preceding verse mixed up. Instead of being quick to hear, we are slow to hear. Instead of slow to speak, we are quick to speak, even interrupting the other guy and making our mind up before we hear everything. Then, of course, we are not slow to anger, but with a short fuse, we explode quickly and easily.

I’ve noticed that an angry person speaks loud and rapid. He loves to get close to your face, nose to nose. An angry situation is volatile. It can quickly turn ugly. There are many things that make us angry. Co-workers, family members, church members, politicians, decisions that we feel were not fair nor thought out, injustice, cheating and on and on we could go, listing all the things that make us angry.

Now, the bigger thought is what do we do with all this anger? It certainly isn’t helping us spiritually. That’s what the verse is telling us. Anger is crippling us. It hurts our family. It’s a terrible image for children to witness. It leads to trouble at church. It causes some folks to quit a job and look for work elsewhere. Anger doesn’t help us.

We remember our Savior’s words: turn the other cheek…do unto others…seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…those words are the foundation principles to the Christian character. Those words remind us to move our thoughts and feelings off of self. Peter tells us that Jesus left an example as He suffered. He uttered no threats in return. He was not like those around Him. He chose to be the way He was.

That’s what bothers me the most about anger. The moment of anger clouds our thinking and we forget to chose the right way. We let anger take over. It runs our emotions, thoughts and feelings. It ruins us. We’ve lost control because of anger.

It might help to back out of a situation and gain control of yourself. In some settings, it is possible to get back to issue at hand at another time. Having a verbal battle at 1:30 in the morning with a teenager probably won’t go well. Get sleep. Calm down. Think out your words. Pray hard. Then, the next day, have a discussion. This isn’t always possible. But when it is, this is the best way. Give time to listen. Give time to speak. Let anger subside. The more tired we are, the worse we feel and the more easily anger takes over. Sometimes we hear a few key words and that’s all that we need to hear before our blood starts to boil. Listen first. Listen well.

Have you ever noticed how many people are angry? You see them everywhere. The angry person isn’t happy. They aren’t smiling. They are worked up and about to explode.

God expects more from His people. Being in control in an out of control world is hard. Staying calm when others are blowing up all around you is hard. Hard is not a reason for not doing what God wants. Hard it is, but impossible it is not. It’s hard to have a conversation with an angry person. They don’t want to listen. They are not following James’ words of being quick to hear and slow to speak. It takes two to argue. If someone insists of shouting, being angry, walk away. If and when they can talk about things calmly, then do it. I’ve had to leave Bible studies because the person I was talking to wouldn’t listen and was exploding.

Most of us can look back and realize that the moments we were angry were not our best moments. We are embarrassed to remember those times. The line between discipline and abuse is often crossed when a person is angry. It’s harder to see that line when your eyes are bulging with anger.

You cannot choose what will happen to you today, but you do choose how you will respond to it. Anger is not a good choice. You feel it coming. It comes quickly. Deal with it quickly. Pray about it. Find positive answers. Don’t let it simmer and dwell in you. Anger is a short bridge to hatred, hostility and sin.

Let you mind dwell upon pleasant things. Listening to angry music puts you in the mood to be angry. Watching angry movies does the same. Hanging around angry people only puts you in the position to learn their evil ways. Proverbs warns about associating with an angry person. So don’t. Even if it’s your brother or cousin. You don’t need that stuff in your life. You don’t need to take over his problems.

Anger doesn’t achieve the righteousness of God. Get that. Stay away from it as much as you can.

Roger