Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Fight Your Anger | My Favorite Verses | 1 John 3.1

Starting point is 00:00:01 Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. We are currently exploring some of our favorite Bible verses and how they've changed our lives. Also, if you want to connect with us, follow us on Twitter at TMBT podcast. You can also check out our hashtag, hashtag, Ask TMBT, where you can ask us anything and we'd love to connect with you. I used to think of myself as a patient person. faced with all manner of frustrations, disappointments, and letdowns, I could remain serene.

Starting point is 00:00:40 Total equanimity. I honestly never felt much anger, and that might be someone else's struggle, but I thought, hey, it's not mine and isn't that awesome. I thought that I was super patient until I had kids. Because as it turns out, God did not bless me with preternatural composure. He simply never tested it. When the test came in the form of a daughter who required 30 minutes of perfect rocking to fall asleep, well, that ruined my plans. It ruined my plans with short naps. It ruined my plans with not needing to be needed. It ruined my plans by just having this little helpless person who I had to take care of, and I couldn't take it. My anger came out in small and big bursts of rage. Sometimes I would yell. Sometimes I would throw something in frustration. but one particular memory stands out.

Starting point is 00:01:32 I remember driving to work one morning, and I'm tired, I'm frustrated, I'm overwhelmed, I'm by myself, and all of a sudden, this deep rage, unlike anything I'd ever experienced, bubbled up. I'm talking about the kind of hot rage you feel deep down in your chest, beneath your heart, that kind of anger. And when you're that angry, you feel like if you don't release it,

Starting point is 00:01:55 it might just consume you. It promises that if you just let loose for a second, you will finally feel better. And so I did. I'm in my car, by myself driving, punching my steering wheel, yelling profanities. I really don't quite remember what I said or how long this went on. What I do remember is the anger subsiding. And when it was over, I felt worse, not better. I looked down at my fist and I thought, what have you become? Where did this come from? Do you really want to be this kind of person? I knew that there were. I knew that there, is such a thing as righteous anger. God expresses it against human evil and justice and sin,

Starting point is 00:02:36 but humans rarely, if ever, actually approximate righteous anger. And there was certainly nothing righteous, by the way, about raging over the normal everyday struggles, every parent faces with a newborn. That moment it begged a question, what if I released this rage in a different place? What if I let loose a barrage of angry, hurtful words on my family? And I was a thing. family, on my coworkers. What kind of dad would I be? What kind of husband, friend? And then I just began to think about how God loves me. Has God vented his just righteous anger against me? No. He poured out his just righteous anger against sin and the body of Jesus. Okay, but is God enraged by my helplessness, by my everyday needs and quirks and annoyances and difficulties?

Starting point is 00:03:33 No, he's not. He actually invites me to bring my needs to him. In fact, he doesn't just invite me. He commands me to do it. Did Jesus punch steering wheels and curse his life? Well, that's a trick question, because there was no such thing as steering wheels in the time of Jesus. But if there were, I think the answer would be no.

Starting point is 00:03:54 Even when he was mocked, betrayed, falsely accused, crucified, he resisted rage. He doesn't call down legions of angels. Instead, he says, forgive them, Father. They know not what they do. There's a verse that I love and kind of hate all at once. It's 1 John 3.1. It says this, see what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. I love this verse for the impossibility of it. hasn't lavished his anger on me. The father has lavished his love on me. What in the world is lavish love anyway? I mean, have I ever seen anyone lavish anything on anyone else? Of course, the person that comes to my mind is my daughter. My wife and I in some ways have lavished love on her.

Starting point is 00:04:47 We have spent hours that have piled up into days and weeks just staring at her, loving her, wanting the best for her, giving her hugs and kisses, saying, I love you, and wanting nothing but goodness in God and her life. That's lavish love, and it's difficult for me to describe how deep that love goes until I realize that there's a mirror here, because as much as we love our kids, we can easily match that love for anger. Just an ounce of rage pulls the plug on my lavish love for my daughter, and it drains it all out. You see, that's why I hate this verse, because it convicts me. It makes me ask, well, my daughter remember her childhood as a childhood of lavish love or lavish anger,

Starting point is 00:05:36 of patience or impatience, generosity or stinginess, kindness, or frustration. Will her earthly father, that's me, will her earthly father show her what her heavenly father is actually like? Or will she remember him as the opposite? as a problem to avoid. Now, I know the truth. No parent is perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. But I still think that these are important questions for us to ask ourselves. Self-reflection, repentance, they often lead to transformation.

Starting point is 00:06:08 And this is true whether or not you have kids. Does the way you treat your friends reflect your Heavenly Father? Your coworkers? Your parents? How will they remember you? What will your life tell them about God? or perhaps you've bought into the lie, that you can be a source of righteous anger and that your anger can bring about good things. I was reading a book by a Christian who rightly explains that God gets

Starting point is 00:06:34 angry over injustice. But then the author makes this leap. The author says that anger is necessary for real transformation. Human anger over injustice is not only Christ-like, it is also necessary, healthy, transformational. Now, of course, rage over injustices in the world or our personal lives is a heady experience. It feels good in the moment. Some people find a way to live off of it for their entire life to feed on it. In some ways, we'd all like to be like that author. But I don't. Rage doesn't change the world. God didn't change me by venting his rage on me. You know how God changed me? how he changed you through forgiveness. Jesus didn't show up to unleash an artillery of words and accusations.

Starting point is 00:07:23 He didn't lead a military coup or take up arms. Instead, he counseled radical forgiveness. And he established his kingdom by a radical act of self-sacrifice in the face of injustice, self-sacrifice for the sake of forgiveness. We should be grieved and even angered by the things we see in our lives. lives, but we should be wary. God didn't vent his anger on us. God didn't transform us that way. And I realized, in the days after punching my steering wheel, that God's forgiveness is the only thing that actually heals my own rage. You see, when I consider how God has treated me when I was his

Starting point is 00:08:05 enemy, how he treats me in my helplessness, how he lavishes love on me, although I've only done him evil and injustice, even though I betrayed him and rebelled against him. When I consider that I received lavish love and not boiling rage, it melts my heart towards people that I'm tempted to be angry with. Whether it's people who don't deserve my anger, like a baby who's just being a baby, or it's people who do deserve my anger, like those who wrong me or wrong others. So the next time, you're tempted to unleash your rage. Re-reveh. read 1 John 3-1, see what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content,

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Fight Your Anger | My Favorite Verses | 1 John 3.1

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