Feeling Angry?

With everything going on in the world today, how could you not feel angry at one time or another?  The most important thing to remember is that anger is birth out of chaos, resentment, frustration, loss or failure.  Then we continually feed our disappointments which causes a lack of forgiveness, this leads to our anger building and building. The anger on top of unrepentance leads to unresolved situations and that leads to rage.  There is a right way to deal with your anger.  If we are saved, we are holy people without fault in God's eyes.  We therefore have the burden of showing the world the right way to deal with hardships, difficult people, unjust situations, poverty, short comings, etc.

I had a period in my life where every person I came in touch with, every situation I was involved in, irritated me and I was a very unhappy person.  No matter what you're going through, There is a God and he sent someone that saw passed my anger and knew I was just acting out because my life wasn't right with God.  She challenged me to at some point to reach out (by prayer) and ask
why everything in my life was causing me to be so unhappy. Amazingly God pointed out that my heart, attitude and mindset was wrong which set the tone for how I was dealing with my problems.  God guided me to the bible where I learned about having joy.  I became more prayerful, but in praying for peace, joy and patience God begin to lead me to what I was praying to be delivered from.  So I learned quite a lot during this trail, which God was saying that what I'm praying for I already have, but I need to exercise my fruits.

We live in a world where people do what makes them happy, what they think is right and pay little or no attention to the negative effects that causes for others around them.  Even in these situations, we need to keep our eyes focused on the Lord.  There's prosperity in living for God's approval.  There's victory and satisfaction in doing right in God's sight, even if it seems like the devil is winning.  The trick of the devil is to make us feel like we're wining, even when there's a loss.  Quarreling, anger and resentment creates a division and there's no victory in being separated from God, from your comforter, from your loved ones, from your support system. The devil wants to isolate you, so you feel like you have no one on your side, nothing to live for and no hope in your situation getting any better.

Remember: THE DEVIL IS A LIAR!!!!!!!!!!!

• Anger is an emotion produced by the flesh and does not create any positive results.
• When you get angry, let reading the word feed, nourish and bring you comfort.
• Let reading the bible, prayer and supplication allow you to become visionaries or workmen for the change that is needed.  
• We all have a job to do to show the world who God is, so let's get to work.
• See the vision, write the vision (create a plan of action) and get workers (to carry out the vision).
• Sow into being peacemakers & peace restorers.
• Speak God into all situations, good and bad.  This will remind us of who He is and that He is in control of all situations, not the other way around.
• We are more than conquers, no weapon formed against us will prosper. (Isaiah 54:17)

Faith is Only the Beginning

For a Christian, the foundation of our faith is our belief of God's existence and that because of His love for us, Jesus died on the cross for our sins. And because of Jesus, we model our own lives after His example of how to live uprightly and for God's approval. 

We have to be careful that our faith doesn't end at simply believing in that fact.  

There's more to having a relationship with God and more to living this life than that.  There have been so many people who have left the Christian faith, because they don't see that their faith has brought any rewarding results in their lives.  I love what my Pastor said once, we as Christians are in a profession of faith and everyone day we must work and walk in our purpose & seek God's approval to have fulfillment in our lives. 

We know our purpose is to be like God or to live like Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh.  We won't know how to achieve this unless we seek God through prayer and bible study. With God's word being a lamp to my feet And a light to my path, I should be able to either design a plan of how I will live as a Christian or to pray that God will order my steps to live Holy to give no chance of letting sin in. (Psalm 119:105) (Psalm 119:133)

(Luke 9:23), says we should, every single day “Deny ourselves, carry our cross, and follow Him.” Ephesians 4:22-24, says to throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

As Christians we should be big on sharing what we have.  We should also be sharing our love for God with others, to the saved and unsaved among us.  I don't mean the Eros or erotic type of love.  I mean the Storge, (empathy) or Philia (friend/brotherly) type of love.   While we work on our relationship with God, we should take note of the Agape (unconditional) type of love that God gives us. No matter how far out of God's will we go, remember sin does separate us from God, but confession and repentance brings restoration in our relationship because of His love for us.  Because He loves us, He will never give up on wanting to dwell in/with us.  And we should never give up on wanting to walk closely with Him, wanting to grow and be a better Christian, wanting to be blessed by Him and wanting Him to be with us while we live our lives.

The Importance of Forgiveness

Being able to say I'm sorry and actually forgiving those who have wronged us can be quite challenging at times.  If we'd see past the hurt, we'd be more understanding and realize we've all been on the receiving and the giving end of being hurt. Being understanding that we're all human and are all capable of making a mistake, 
being selfish, cruel and inconsiderate will happen.  We have to remember Colossians 3:13 which says, Make allowance for each other’s faults, and quickly forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.  

Ephesians 4:30-32, says And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. rid yourself of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Holding onto bitterness for others creates havoc and corruption in our lives. (Hebrews 12:15)  

Unforgiveness breeds bitterness which poisons our heart towards our trespasser and it poisons our heart against God. Unforgiveness is the sin hat destroys relationships. We may hold back from forgiving because of a false sense of being in control and returning the hurt that was done unto us, but in reality we are really only alienating ourselves and blocking ourselves from receiving God's forgiveness, His consoling us and His love.

We need to always remember that life is a process of living, learning, meeting new people, making decisions, making mistakes, being remorseful, growing, asking forgiveness, adjusting our plans and continuing on our journey of life.  What makes this message a bite more difficult is, what if the trespasser doesn't even ask forgiveness. Prepare your heart to forgive anyway.  I've heard many times that forgiveness is for you to release the hurt you're feeling.  So forgiveness is a spiritual cleansing of the offense, like you hitting the reset button for restoration in your relationship with that person or to hit the reset button to walk away and be free of this person, free of animosity and free of ill will, like separating on good terms.

People come into our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. We need to take stock of who are friends are and pray for discernment that this is a Godly friendship, partnership or relationship. Some of the hardships we find ourselves in with others, could be a message from God to detach from this person, because they're bringing such chaos into your life.  A valuable friendship is one where there's an exchange of giving encouragement to do good, correction, spiritual insight and challenging to grow not only in our faith, but to nurture maturity in life in general.

Renewing your Faith

Like with everything in our lives, we can grow weary, tired and feel like our lives have become real humdrum.  That can also happen with our faith and also with our relationship with God. We have to be the Catalyst, the cheerleader and encourage our own selves when sin enters in and causes us to become separated from God. The sin that causes the separation can lead to the feeling of being overwhelmed, feeling of being alone, leave us with unconfessed sins, lead to us being unrepentant, with no desire to draw closer to God and ultimately lead us to letting our zeal for God to die.

Letting the fire, passion and hunger for God die, will lead to the death of our spiritual self and open the door to disappointment, frustration, anger, heartache, more sin, discontentment and strife.  Just like with any relationship you engage in, if you want it to last long and be strong you have to feed it.  If you feed or sow negativity into it, you will receive negative results out of it.

I'm learning more and more everyday, that you truly do reap what you sow.  You get out of life the same effort and energy you're putting into it.   Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 There's a season for everything under the sun. It is God that knows the plans for our lives. His plans are for our welfare, for us not to fall for evil and to give us hope for the future.  Jeremiah 29:11

The best way to protect ourselves from evil is through prayer and studying the word for spiritual nourishment.  We should make a list of what we will pray for daily.  Before we go into our prayer we need to praise and thank God for who He is and for how He has kept us from evil thus far.  Like in the attitude of gratitude message having an attitude of gratitude will keep us from constantly complaining about what's wrong and anticipating evil to befall us. Being thankful and having praise in our hearts, will build up our faith and confidence so we will continually be reminded that God is truly in control.   Being thankful and praising God even in the midst of a struggle sends God a message that we trust and have faith that He is sovereign (head, leader, supreme) in our lives. 

Because living this life is hard and we will face stumbling blocks that threaten to separate us from God, always remember that God is the answer to whatever problem or situation that arises. 

2 Corinthians 4:17-18, says for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs any of our troubles. So we must not fix our eyes on our problems, but on God who is unseen. Since our problems are temporary, better energy is spent sowing into things which are eternal.