Peace And Joy In An Angry World

It never ceases to amaze me that when I am struggling in a certain area of my life and I open the Bible to read, exactly what I needed pops right out at me, exactly what I needed God to tell me to draw me closer to Him shows up.  I had another such experience on Saturday, we had to go into work due to the fact that we were behind schedule and missed two days during the week due to the intense amount of rain that we saw.  As expected, no one who went in was in a good mood, no one wanted to work on a Saturday.  I was no exception to this and started off sour, I let some comments from coworkers get to me easily due to this and snapped at a couple of them pretty harshly, setting off to a very poor start to the day.  Things did not get better as two of my coworkers nearly got into a physical fight and had to be restrained.  The day seemed to be spiraling out of control and just seemed miserable, and that was just in the first three hours of the day!  So at our break at 930, I was in my car reading my Bible as is my custom during my breaks.  I had finished off my first chapter of reading in 1st Corinthians and started reading in Psalms in chapter 39, what I read really blew me away and has given me a new perspective on anger and how to deal with it.  Before I go on, I will share a few of the verses in this chapter and break them down a little bit:

Psalms 39:1-2

I said, "I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle while the wicked are in my presence."  I was mute and silent, I refrained even from good, and my sorrow grew worse

David is telling us his pledge that he made in the previous chapter, to not show his anger to men, to not lash out with his tongue to them, but to be mute and silent in face of taunting or whatever it might be that is angering you.  So he tells us he did this, and while he kept silent, his anger did not go away, it festered inside of him and kept him from even doing good to those around him, and his sorrow and misery grew worse.

Psalms 39:3-8

My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: Lord make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.  Behold, you have made my days as handbreadths and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.  Surely every man walks about as a phantom; Surely they make an uproar for nothing;  He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.  And now, Lord, for what do I wait?  My hope is in you.  Deliver me from all my transgressions; Make me not the reproach of the foolish.

David tells us that his anger continued to burn, and finally he did speak, but not to men, he did not vent his feelings and anger to man, but he brought it all to God.  He takes every one of his problems to God, he realizes that man is nothing more then a breadth on this earth and that no physical things or praise we gain on this earth matter.  He tells God that all is hope is in Him and asks Him to save him from his sinful desires and urges(his anger) he asks God to not make him a stumbling block and a point of reproach for the foolish people of this earth.

Psalms 39:12-13

"Hear my prayer, O Lord and give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears;  For I am a stranger with You, a sojourner like all my fathers.  Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more."

David continues his prayer, telling God that he is wondering this world, that it is not his real home, his real home is with God in heaven.  He asks Him to not be angry with him, to take away his anger so that he can smile again before his time on this earth is done.

This is a problem for a lot of people, I know it surely is one for me.  We live in an angry world in which we get cheap laughs by putting others down and get angry at others when they put us down.  We allow this to effect us in the way we relate to others by constantly lashing out or we hold our anger inside, causing us even more sorrow and torment.  As Christians we cannot lash out at others in anger, we cannot allow ourselves to do this as it hurts our relationship with God, it sheds a very poor light on our faith to the world and also continues the vicious cycle of anger in and angry world.  But David shows us the way to let go of our anger, to deal with our inner demons so to speak.  It is to take all our problems, anger and issues to God.  Our days on this earth are numbered, we are nothing more then a whisp in the wind, for us to hold onto our anger and allow it to effect how we interact with others and effect our relationship with God is disaterous to our relationship with God and damning in the eyes of the world as they see us as being no different from them.  God is willing to take all of our anger and sorrow from us if we give it to Him, laying it all on His shoulders.  If we do this, then we will be able to feel joy and smile again in this angry world.  God offers us this joy of living a life free from anger burning inside of us, free from our misery and sorrows.  So often we choose to except this, we choose to live with our anger, lashing out at those around us and letting it build inside of us.  My personal experience on Saturday, after reading this it really effected me, I broke down in my car, praying to God to take it all from me.  The result was nothing short of amazing, all of the anger I was feeling was lifted, He took it all from me.  I was in an incredibly good mood from that point on, my coworkers noticed this and we talked about it.  There were no more problems the rest of the day, everyone seemed to be in a better mood.  I am going to struggle with my anger more as my life goes on, but God further showed me how I can be rid of it, by taking it to Him, giving it to Him and not letting it effect me.  He gave me back my smile and my joy in Him and He will do the same thing for me the next time if I allow Him too, He will do it for you to, for all of us.  We truly can live with peace and joy in this angry world, all we have to do is turn it all over to Him, the Lord and Savior of our life.

Tim