You Do Not Have an Anger Problem

I’ve had a few opportunities over the past couple of weeks to become angry.  Really angry.  A couple of times, I gave in to those opportunities.  It was not pretty.  I think I resembled something like the female version of Yosemite Sam.  On one of those instances, I even went to bed angry.  I know better.  (Thank God for grace!)

I finally started questioning the things that had upset me, basically stepping outside of my own emotions, and looking objectively at each of the situations.  What did they have in common?  Was there a pattern?  Were these random occurrences, or was there a possibility that I was being tested in some area?

And guess what?  There WAS a pattern.  It WAS a time of testing.  Once I understood what was going on, I actually laughed out loud!  When the next test came, I hung up the phone, and announced to the enemy (not the person on the phone, but the evil one behind the attack), “Bring it on, loser!”  I’m really glad I was alone … some people might think I’m a little nuts!

Here’s the point.  No one can MAKE me angry.  IF someone else can MAKE me angry, or sad, or happy, for that matter, then that person is in control of me.

So why do we become angry?

Anger is one of two instinctive responses to fear.  The other is to run away.  It’s called, in psychological terms, the FIGHT or FLIGHT response.

Fight-or-flight response, response to an acute threat to survival that is marked by physical changes, including nervous and endocrine changes, that prepare a human or an animal to react or to retreat. The functions of this response were first described in the early 1900s by American neurologist and physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon (Britannica, 2016).

Anger, then, is not the problem; it is only a response, a symptom.  The real problem is fear.  When there is a threat, real OR perceived, anger is a natural response.

YOU DO NOT HAVE AN ANGER PROBLEM

Do you have a fear problem?

The good news is, we have NOTHING to fear!!

The Apostle John tells us in 1 Jn. 4:18 that there is no fear in love, because perfect love completely drives out fear!

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  Just as it is written, ‘FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.’  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:35-39).  If the Apostle in this passage could be assured of God’s love to him, and write such words, in the middle of the persecution that they were enduring, why can’t we?

Jesus Himself told the 12, whom He had just appointed as Apostles, and to whom He had just given authority over unclean spirits, diseases, and sicknesses, ““Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul…” (Matt. 10:28)  He told them, “You will be tortured, but DON’T BE AFRAID!”

Our final word of encouragement comes from the Old Testament, a verse that is one of my personal favorites:  “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).

The Lord is with you.  Regardless of your circumstances, regardless of what the people in your life may do or say, regardless of what hurdles you may face, you do not have to fear!  Be strong!  Be courageous, because THE LORD IS WITH YOU!

Peace,

Davina

Works Cited

Britannica, T. E. (2016, April 13). Fight-or-flight response. Retrieved from Britannica: http://www.britannica.com/topic/fight-or-flight-response

The Mask of a Happy Little AGPK

I tried to “get saved” until I was 46 years old.

You see, being raised in the Bible Belt-Buckle, in a strict works-based society, I believed that if I slipped up and said a cuss-word, or had a bad thought, or did something even worse, and I died before I asked forgiveness, that I would spend my eternity in hell.  I tried and tried.  I really did.  I tried to be good.  But I failed.  Miserably.  Every single time.

One sunny afternoon – I was about 12 years old – I couldn’t find any of my family (with seven of us, which was very odd!).  Mother?  Dad?  Nowhere to be found.  Sisters?  Brothers?  Nope.  Everyone was at work, gone to town, or just running around somewhere on the farm.  But I was convinced that the rapture had taken place – that Jesus had come back, taken all of them, and had left me alone.

A similar instance happened when I was at my Granny’s house, one summer evening, when she, my mom, and sisters were all gone out doing a little shopping.  I had no interest in going with them, so I stayed at the house.  They were gone a little too long, and I, again, began to question if I had been “left behind.”

I was in torment.  Always underlying, always in the back of my mind, in my subconscious if not my conscious, was the thought that at any moment I could be sealed to a fate of everlasting torment.  And I didn’t know how to fix it.  That’s a big burden for a 12-year-old.

Things didn’t get any better for me as an adult.  In fact, they got worse.  Again, try as I would, I just couldn’t “be good.”  I had a wild streak.  The baby of five children, and always feeling like a misfit, I lived out my wildness for a while, and then I started “trying” again.

And all this time I wore the mask of a happy little AGPK (Assembly of God Preacher’s Kid).  I was good at pretending.  I knew how to ACT.  I knew how to TALK.  But I still didn’t know how to fix my heart.

Jafar, Disney's Aladdin, 1992

My problem wasn’t due to a lack of teaching, preaching, childhood family dinners, or anything else at which we normally like to point fingers.  No, my problem was bad Theology.  To me, God was a big mean guy with unbridled power, and an angry streak 10 miles wide, who was ready to zap me any moment I messed up - kind of like Aladdin’s Jafar, when he attained all the Genie’s power – only worse.

Long story short, on April 8, 2011, I was saved at a women’s conference in Southlake, Texas.  I was saved from trying.  I was saved from the power of sin over me.  I WAS RADICALLY SAVED, AND I KNEW IT!!

What changed?  Everything!!

For one thing, I gave up.  I stopped trying to BE good.  I cannot BE something I am not.  And I will never BE good.  Jesus said, “…there’s no one good, but God alone” (Matt. 19:17).  I recognized the Good-ness of God, and received that as my own.  It was that simple.  Remember, the Old Testament priest never examined the man, but the lamb.  It was the Lamb, who had to be perfect, not the man!

After that moment, I began to the conversion process.  It's like this:  At the moment of salvation, I received a new system, with all-new software!  (Paul called it being a “new creature” – 2 Cor. 5:17.)  But all my files (my thoughts), which had been running on the old system with all its old software, had to be converted.  This is a process, sometimes a very long process!  Paul speaks of the necessity of renewing the mind, or psyche (Rom. 12:2).  I was saved from hell in an instant.  I am being saved, continually, from my personal hell, a little at a time.

*"Prince of Peace," Akaine Kramarik

The good news, and the point of this writing, is that even when I mess up, even when I sin, He is still good.  He still loves.  He still gives.  It is His nature.  Even when I am faithless, He remains faithful (2 Ti. 2:13)!  (Yes, He IS a Good, Good Father, Chris Tomlin!)

Let me sum it up with my favorite Bible passage of all time: 

I HAVE BEEN SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH!

IT’S NOT OF MYSELF, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD.

NOT AS A RESULT OF WORKS, SO I CAN’T BRAG ABOUT IT.

FOR I AM HIS WORKMANSHIP,

CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS FOR GOOD WORKS,

WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND

SO THAT I WOULD WALK IN THEM.

Eph. 2:8-10

The knowledge and acceptance of His grace in my life, takes ALL the burden for my salvation off me, and puts it on The One who already paid the debt!!  Why would I try to pay a bill that’s already cleared?!  No way!  I KNOW I’m saved!  I’m not trying to make it to Heaven.  I’m already there.  

Peace,

Davina

*https://www.akiane.com/about

FRUIT INSPECTORS

Are you a fruit inspector?

Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits.  Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?” (Matt. 7:16.)  At first look, it may seem that Jesus is saying in this verse, “You can tell if someone’s ‘for real’ by the fruit they bear.  So go ahead!  Inspect away!”

Have you ever heard someone say, “I know we’re not supposed to judge, but we ARE called to be fruit inspectors.”

Are we?

First, let’s go back to that judging thing, which just happens to be in the same teaching, right before Jesus begins talking about fruit.  Matt. 7:1 - “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.”  The word judge comes from the Greek KRINO, which is the same word used in Jn. 3:17, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge (condemn) the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”  Jesus Himself didn’t come to judge; He warned against judging; so why should we think we’re called to do this very thing?

So was Jesus contradicting His own teaching, when He said, “Don’t judge.  But know them by their fruits?”

No.  Jesus was not contradictory, nor schizophrenic.

Let’s look a little deeper, which brings us to my second point.

If we read Verse 15 of that same chapter, we find that Jesus wasn’t talking about everyone, but prophets, specifically false prophets.  He warned, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”  So what is a prophet?  And what is a false prophet?

·        

         A prophet is not just one who speaks of future events, but one who speaks “as an interpreter or spokesman for God,” a PROPHETES (Thayer's Greek Lexicon - Strong's G4396).

·     

        The words “false prophet” are actually a combination of two Greek words, PSEUDO + PROPHETES, meaning “one who, acting the part of a divinely inspired prophet, utters falsehoods under the name of divine prophecies” (Strong's G5578).

Jesus compared the false prophet to a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  The false prophet, disguising himself as a sheep, goes into the flock for the sole purpose of leading them away from the Shepherd.  The sheep follow the “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” because of their instinctive tendency to stay together for protection (Cobb, 1999).

Jesus’ warning, then, is that we should not take prophets, or teachers, at face value, but to consider their fruit, or their words.  Are they speaking truth?  Does it line up with the written Word of God?  If not, it’s false.  It’s fake fruit.  Don’t follow them.

Thirdly, the only Inspector General that I find in the Bible is God Himself.

“And He began telling this parable: ‘A MAN had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and HE came looking for fruit on it and did not find any’” (Luke 13:6).  A basic understanding of Jesus’ parables lets us know that when He says, “A MAN,” or “A CERTAIN MAN,” this MAN is God.  God looks for, and at, the fruit we bear.

Just one more point, and in my opinion, the most important.

We ARE called to be inspectors of our own fruit (1 Cor. 11:28).  I don’t know about you, but for me, this is a full-time job!  Just guarding my own heart, watching my own tongue, staying positive, resisting the temptations that are a result of my own lust, forgiving others when they’ve wronged me, asking forgiveness when I’m the offender - without trying to keep everyone else straight – is challenge enough.

Are you a fruit inspector?

Peace,


Davina