GIVE YOUR ANGER TO GOD

From Solid Ground daily devotionals by Mark Finley

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Prov. 16:32

We get control of our anger by giving it up to God. An inner-city kid named Ben can teach us how.

Ben grew up in a Detroit ghetto, a place where anger flows freely in the streets, where getting even with anyone who disrespects you is a way of life.

By the time Ben reached high school, he had developed quite a temper. As he listened to the radio one afternoon his buddy yelled, “You call that music?” and flipped the dial to another station. Ben shot back, “It’s better than what you like!” and grabbed the dial.

His buddy resisted, and is that instant a blind anger took hold of Ben. He grabbed the camping knife that he carried in his back pocket, snapped it open, and lunged at his friend’s belly. The blade hit his friend’s ROTC belt buckle with such force that it snapped and dropped to the ground.

Ben stared down at the broken blade, and his knees just about gave way. He had almost killed someone. He’d almost killed a good friend. Over what?

This incident forced Ben to face his anger head-on. He had to do something about it. He could not handle his temper alone. Ben prayed, “Lord, You have to take this temper from me. If You don’t, I’ll never be free from it. You can change me.”

Back home, Ben locked himself in a bathroom and began reading the book of Proverbs. He read many texts that spoke pointedly about uncontrolled anger and where it leads. The words seemed written just for him. This verse impressed him the most: “He who is slow to anger is better that the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (Prov. 16:32).

“The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression” (Prov. 19:11). We become angry when we magnify the errors of others. We become obsessed with what another has done to us. Their actions control us.

This is what happened to Ben. He knew he had to deal with it. Proverbs provided the key. He agreed with the wise man that “wrath is cruel and anger a torrent” (Prov. 27:4), and “he who is slow to anger allays contention” (Prov. 15:18).

These words gave Ben hope, something to aim at. He made a commitment to read the Scriptures each day and gave himself and his problem wholeheartedly to God. A sense of peace replaced Ben’s anguish and panic. As he walked out of that room he felt God had changed him.

God dealt decisively with this young man’s uncontrolled anger. The hands that had once lunged with a knife became the disciplined, skilled hands of a surgeon. Ben Carson became one of America’s respected pediatric neurosurgeons.

God can deal with your anger too, but only if you give it to Him. Is there any anger in your heart? Why not give it to God as you pray today.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

From the Devotional book "The Promises of God" by H.M.S. Richards

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee (Isa. 49:15).

Can a woman forget her child? She may, but it’s unnatural. A little girl was told by her busy mother to go and play with her dolls, but the child complained, “I just love them and love them, but they never love me back.” And so God keeps loving us and loving us, but often we do not love Him back. Yet He does not forget us, even as a mother does not forget her wandering son, but remembers him as her baby.

“If I am thy child, O God,” said Augustine at the time of his conversion, “it is because thou didst give me such a mother.” And surely many of us may say that.

Of the daughter of Pharaoh it is written, “She saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept” (Ex. 2:6). A true woman may resist many things, but no woman with a mother’s heart can resist the cry of her own child. How many thousands of mother’s have sacrificed their lives for their babies! The story is as old as the world and as sweet as heaven. God uses it to picture His love to us. “Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”

A true mother never forgets, never forsakes. She follows her babe through childhood, adulthood, and down to the end to the darkest path the world has ever known. She never forgets.

From the great father-mother heart of God comes the promise “Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” He will not forget, because He loves and cares.

MEDITATION PRAYER: “Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old” (Ps. 25:6).

PULL THE RIP CORD OF FAITH

Solid Ground daily devotionals by Mark Finley

 

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5

Sandy’s friends craned their necks up at the blue sky and caught her tiny figure hurling itself out of the plane. This was her first time to jump without a line, and this time Sandy was going to pull the rip cord herself.

Her friends far below counted with her – one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand. But the parachute didn’t open. Nothing was happening. They waited as Sandy fell farther and farther. Why didn’t she pull the rip cord? If something was wrong, what about her reserve chute?

Tragically, this young woman plummeted all the way to the ground and died instantly. When the ground crew rushed to the site, they noticed her parachute still folded neatly in the pack on her back. What had happened?

Then they saw the cloth of her jumpsuit torn away on the right side of her chest. It seemed as if she’s been desperately clawing at it. In fact, she’s dug through her clothing and actually lacerated her flesh with her fingers. The terrible truth dawned on them. Her rip cord was on her left side! In a moment of panic she had forgotten and kept pulling and yanking and clawing at the rip cord on the right, but it wasn’t there.

Is it possible that we are frantically pulling on a rip cord that isn’t there? Any time we trust in our own strength to overcome temptation we are pulling on a cord that isn’t there. Any time we trust our own power to overcome the enemy we are diving for disaster. It wasn’t that Sandy didn’t put forth any effort – she was frantic. She tried as hard as she could. Her problem was that her effort was misplaced.

The Scriptures make two counterbalancing statements. The first says, “I can do nothing.” The second says, “I can do all things.” Jesus said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Without Him all of our best efforts are in vain. Without Him we are powerless. Without Him all of our best efforts are doomed to failure. “Human effort avails nothing without divine power” (Prophets and Kings, p. 487).

The apostles pulls the right rip cord when triumphantly declares, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). Through Jesus the weak become strong. In His strength and power we are overcomers. Our Lord has never lost a battle with the enemy. He is not about to begin now. Grasp His power. Fight in His strength. Yield to His grace. Pull the rip cord of faith.