Live Free with Josh Howerton - Reflect Before You React | Ep. 304 | Thursday, April 4, 2024

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

James 1:19-20 warns us to be slow to anger. Our anger is often a reaction to a different emotion going on inside us. When you start to feel anger, pray and ask God to show you what is happening in your heart. Reflect and remember the results that may come from your choices. Ask the Holy Spirit for the self-control to wisely respond to whatever is going on around and inside you. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what is up? This is the Daily Drive podcast where we spend a few minutes unpacking God's Word Monday through Friday. I'm Mike Bro. Thanks for tuning in. In honor of March Madness, we've been talking this week, not about the final four, but about the fatal four. Four things that we need to be

aware of, four things that we need to game plan for so that they don't take us out. We spent the first part of the week talking about the number one seed, the number one threat, pride. If you missed it, ought to go back and give it a listen, because really everything we'll be talking about always goes back to that one. Yesterday we began talking about the number two seed, the one that's like neck and neck with pride, a little thing called anger. And we read this from James 1, verse 19 and 20, where he writes, understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. I told you yesterday that I give you a game.

plan today for managing unhealthy anger. So let me just give you a few practical ways that God's been teaching me through the years about handling my anger. The first one is this, reflect before you react. Reflect before you react. Anger is a pretty complex emotion. One of the reasons anger is as mysterious, complex and baffling as it really is, is that most of the time our anger tends to divert our attention away from the real issue. Which is why, psychologists often refer to anger as the second emotion. We don't know how to handle the first emotion that comes over us, so we just jump on over to anger. So it's been helpful for me to reflect before I react. Ask what's really going on inside of me. What's the root of that? Did I feel devalued? Did I feel slighted? Is it my own insecurity? Is it my pace of life? Is it my growing irritability? Is it some unresolved grudge that's been burning deep inside of me? Is it's still my pride running my life. What's really going on in me? You know, I can personally always tell when something not quite right is going on in me when my irritability level starts rising.

And it happened to me in traffic a while back. I got all worked up. This guy in front of me was going so slow on a two-lane country road. I was in a hurry. I was running late. And in frustration, a not-so-kind word bubbled up out of me. A word I like never used. It just rolled out of my mouth of my truck, and I thought, oh my goodness, where did that come from? And I thought to myself, something's out of whackin me. Then I started reflecting about it. I was mad because he was enjoying his ride at my expense. And the reason I couldn't enjoy my ride was because I procrastinated and left way too late to get where I was going. And I was mad at him for a bad habit that I have been falling into. And in the moment, he was not as important as me because important people like me,

are always in a hurry. So get out of my way, you, you unimportant person. Be aware when you know you're getting angry. Admitted to yourself as early in the process as possible. You know what? My buttons have been pushed here. My fuse has been lit. My irritability level is starting to rise. Yep, I'm sure of it. I'm ticked. And then reflect, why am I so ticked off here? What's the first emotion? What is the deeper issue I need to deal with? Help me, God. Pray in the moment. God, not to jump to the easy path of bombing somebody else with my anger right now. Is there something wrong in my heart that's making me so agitated? Help me react appropriately. You see, the earlier you admit it to yourself, and you call it what it is, the more time you have to decide how you're

going to handle it. Proverbs 1727 says the one who knows much says little. An understanding person remains calm. So reflect before you react. Second thing, remember the results. Remember the results. You say, you know what, I got a choice here. I can stir up dissension, and I can commit a whole lot of sin in the next few minutes, or I can handle this appropriately this time. Because you do have a choice. You don't have to spew it out or litigated or bomb people with it. It can be managed in a God-honoring way, and you certainly don't need to stuff it, because when you stuff it, it just smolders, and it plays right into the enemy's game plan. It says in Ephesians chapter four, don't sin by letting anger control you. Don't let the sun go down while you're still angry, for anger gives a foothold.

To the devil, you're playing right into his hand when you stuff it. So deal with it. If you don't, it's going to leak all over people. I was speaking to a group of men not long ago about sexual temptation, lust, affairs, and such. And I told them one of the keys is to play the video all the way out of what would happen to you and other people in your life if you went through with what you're thinking about. Take a long look at the long-term consequences before. You go down that road, and I think the same principle is effective in dealing with anger.

Remember the results. Remember what happened the last time you went off. Think of the damage you might do this time. Sometimes God restrains me from doing something, but just giving me a quick glimpse of the way it's going to be if I follow through. And I don't like that picture, so I stop before it's too late. Just because someone has made you angry, you don't have to be mean. You don't have to compound the problem with sin.

Proverbs 2922 says an angry man stirs up to. ascension and a hot-tempered one commits many sins. So play the video all the way out. Proverbs 1122 gives us a glimpse of that video, the fool who provokes his family to anger and resentment will finally have nothing worthwhile left. And gang, we can internalize some of these scriptures and we can scroll down through the options. We can stop in the moment and ask the Holy Spirit to give us some supernatural help, to ask him for self-control, an expert dose of compassion and patience, we really can make wise choices that will honor God and build our own character and in the process, even save our relationships. So reflect before you react,

remember the results, and one more, oh man, I'm out of time. It makes me so mad. I'm just kidding. Come back tomorrow. I'm going to give you the last strategy. Hope you have a great day. And let these words ring in your ears be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. See you back tomorrow. Have a good day. for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive.