Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Seven Deadly Sins- Anger



"But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna." (Mathew 5:22).

We read in these words how serious God takes our anger when it is misdirected towards another in a spirit of superiority.

There are many who will try and disguise their anger as righteous anger when in fact what it actually is a malformed sense of self love. When we become angry with another it is usually because we wish to prove ourselves right thereby making ourselves superior to another. What drives anger is a sense of self justification to prove your worth to all who will hear.

What many fail to understand is what righteous anger actually is. Jesus was right to be angry with the Pharisee's and their hypocrisy for He is Holy and Divine, whereas we are not.

It is righteous to feel anger over injustices suffered by others and to speak out against societies injustices perpetrated against the innocent. Does this then give us license to murder those who have enacted an injustice against another? Of course not! That is vengeance dressed up as righteous anger.

We need to realise that we are in control of our anger and not at the mercy of it. If someone offends us, then give it over to God in prayer, do not nurture hurt until it turns from hurt to anger and from anger to rage. When your conscience is clear before God then nothing else matters.

When someone has hurt and angered you then pray for them in all sincerity, for it is impossible for a soul to hate the person who has harmed them.

We also need to understand that though someone may hurt and anger us, we also do the same thing to another as none are perfect and we all fall short of the glory of God.

In the end the spirit you feed is the spirit that will prevail.


Peace of Christ to ALL

Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.

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