Anger – Grrrr

Given June 2014

I was at Kmart to buy my wife a nice piece of jewelry.  I was in sort of a hurry and the attendant was talking to a woman and her husband on the other side of the counter.  The woman started asking questions that I considered were lacking in relevance, one after the other and I was in a hurry.  I could feel my temper rising with each question and with the few seconds that were ticking by with each one.  I began to think thoughts about the woman in my mind, “Why doesn’t she hush and go on, I’m in a hurry!”  “Oh no, she should already know the answer to that question!”  “Why doesn’t her husband say something to move things along?”  Temper; level one, two, three…grrr!  But then, I realized what was happening.  I said to myself, “Devil, you’re not going to make me mad; I’m not going there.” “So just go on and get out of here, the joy of the Lord is my strength.”  I took a deep breath and you know what?  My temper began to subside and a smile inched across my face.  Praise the Lord!

I can feel when my temper is starting to boil, can you?  But actually, who controls our temper?  Is saying, “Oh, I couldn’t help it.”, a valid excuse?  Our thoughts are like a train station. They come and go every minute and WE decide which ones to get on.

 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2 Cor. 10:5)

The battlefield is in our minds and we have control over our minds.  The devil can’t make us do anything; and God won’t make us do anything.  We have a free will.  Let’s use it in a way that is pleasing to God.