4 Major Pitfalls for Men Pt 3 Anger
The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God(James 1:20 NKJV). The issue of anger, its causes and effects, has been researched and discussed by many psychologists and therapists over the years, but the church has scantily touched this issue,even though the Bible is abundantly clear that anger unchecked can lead to demonic footholds; “When angry, do not sin; do not ever let your wreath, your exasperation, your fury or indignation last until the sun goes down. Leave no such room or foothold for the devil, give no opportunities to him”. (Eph 4:25-27 AMP). It’s obvious by passages such as these that anger can be an entrance point in our lives for the demonic, so it’s incumbent on us to understand what anger is, isn’t and how to bring it captive “to the obedience of Christ”. Proverbs is replete with admonitions to the lazy man but typically lazy people sometimes appear more busy than most. Activity is not productivity and sometimes lazy men rush around,diligently avoiding tasks or procrastinating till the last second.
Proverbs 12:24 The hand of the diligent will rule, But the slack hand will be put to forced labor. Proverbs 12:27 A lazy man does not roast his prey, But the precious possession of a man is diligence Proverbs 13:4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, But the soul of the diligent is made fat. There are 4 key areas we men must pay attention to at home, work, school or with our family. They are: Pride,laziness,anger & negativity.
We must not give in to these on any regular basis or they are likely to again surface regularly so we must defeat them each time. The first and the worst: Pride It is amazingly important that we men guard the thoughts that come out of our hearts, because if we don’t learn to first filter them, then cast aside the bad ones or unfruitful ones, they will roll around in our thoughts and sooner or later come out of our mouths.If they are negative and angry or even despairing this can spill out many times inadvertently,to the consternation of those around us. An attitude of either joy and gratefulness or conversely,frustration and dismay can quickly rub off on those around us! We can and must guard what we think and say. Why? Because as men we bring an atmosphere into every situation and can either positively or negatively affect each and every person we are around and interact with by our words,our mood and our attitude. Daily, we can choose whether we will have either a positive impact or a negative one. And if you are a father your children are watching you,so the consequences of emotions that are out of control can be severe.
From the very beginning, the biggest battle for the believer is to clearly know who they are, what they are called to do and how they relate to God. Each of us has to grapple with our own family and national background, our sexual and racial makeup, and our unique personality to discover the giftings and callings we have. God has specifically designed each of us and THIS is our identity. His perfect will for us is our destiny and purpose. If the enemy at the beginning of our life or other crucial times can lay a false narrative in our thinking and alter our foundation, then our identity and calling will be confused. If this is accomplished, the enemy convinces us we have another identity rather than God’s design so we then become spiritually crippled and eventually alienated from God. We see this tactic in the garden where satan attempts to deceive Eve in Genesis 3:1-6 .
Atlanta area news reports this week had two horrible tales of evil: an older couple who drove three hours away to purchase a car through Craigslist were murdered by the one who listed the car; and a single woman who killed her three children, then herself in their apartment. These kinds of horror stories are all too frequent in our society. In addition we hear of the ghoulish tactics used by Isis in Iraq & Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria, who recently killed 2000 people in one village stalking down Christians and burning their churches! So far they have destroyed 1000 Christian churches and killed thousands of people.
Here are more insights for 2015:
We will see the.. 3) Rise of the Holy Disturber/Enforcer- If and when the will of God is NOT done on earth it is because we won’t agree with God in faith for it to be done and participate in its doing!If you walk by a crippled woman at Wal-Mart, do you accept it or try to change it? The Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:9-14) makes the will of God simple: Heaven on earth Daily Provision Deliverance from debts.material/relational Protection from temptation/evil And it is motivated not by religious duty but compassion and love (Mt 9:10-13) 2014 was a shaky year with ISIS, Ebola, and Ukraine dominating the news. I have learned that things that look threatening many times never materialize & other things do happen we don’t foresee. We need more wisdom (what to do) and understanding (what it means)-Job 12:13. We must stop asking what? why? and when?
1) We are called to make heaven happen here! Job 22:28– We are called to decree and speak those things into being that are God’s will and as we do, light will shine on our ways! God put us in the earth not to merely wring our hands over what is happening, but to “make heaven happen here!” When we align and join our hearts with heaven’s will then as we pray and declare His kingdom comes to earth! It has been said that justice should be blind so that she can remain unbiased and without prejudice. That justice should make determination based on evidence of guilt or innocence rather than a wrong view of the person charged. This is a good thing: Justice should be blind and unbiased. But faith cannot be blind, even though many Christians only want to believe when they can’t see what is going on! Like the monkey that “sees no evil” or like the ostrich with their head in the ground, too many believers seem to think that to have faith for something, they need to avoid looking at or talking about it.
Faith has to be a gift of the Holy Spirit. Faith cannot be a just a good “hunch” but many times that “hunch” is coming from our spirit and is more real than a “guess” or “shot in the dark.” Faith is based on God’s ability not ours. God loves us to exercise faith in HIM! Hebrews 11:6: But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him! Luke 7:34: The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! ’ But wisdom is justified by all her children.
This passage makes it clear that Jesus had no problem breaking away from the Jews of the synagogue and hanging out among the rabble of Israel. They tended to be the tax-collectors (a group everyone hated), prostitutes, gluttons, drunks, the sick, and other assorted sinners of His day. Some followed Him around and got healed of their maladies and many followed Him-but at a distance. But if those sinners were around Him, they all were attracted to His love, yet confronted with His truth which caused many to be converted and to follow Him. Here is one particularly descriptive recount of the incident of Matthew or Levi the tax collector’s conversion: |
AuthorPastor Marc Lawson Archives
July 2018
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