Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Anger”
Our Bible verse for today: “Better a dry crust with peace than a house full of feasting with strife.” Proverbs 17:1 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Anger isn’t worth it.”
In the first few devotional messages for this month we’ve established that everyone struggles with anger in some form. We all express anger in some manner, be it overt or subtle, and if we’re honest about it we will admit that it is a problem and it is almost never helpful or good.
That realization should cause us to want to do something about it. If most human expressions of anger are negative and lead to unhappy consequences, then our goal should be to gain control over it and to minimize the damage. So today I want to begin considering some of the impacts of improperly expressed anger. Then we will move into a discussion of how to deal with it.
Proverbs 17:1 is just one rendering of a common Biblical theme which helps us to understand that anger is almost always self-defeating. In this case Solomon expresses that truth with the thought that a simple crust of bread, consumed in a peaceful setting, will be much more enjoyable than a buffet of delicious food but where everyone is fighting and arguing.
The fact is that anger is emotionally draining. Not only does it fill your mind with negative thoughts which in turn poison your attitude, but anger drains away your emotional energy and leaves you physically exhausted. And the more time you spend being angry, the more it robs you of your peace of mind and of your physical energy.
Many years ago my wife Linda and I came to the point in our marriage where we both just gradually grew weary of being mad all the time and of the constant arguing and bickering. It was just tiring. Finally we both came to the conclusion that most of the things we argued about really didn’t matter that much and weren’t worth the emotional cost we were paying.
So we just stopped. It wasn’t worth it. We each came to the point that we would rather have peace than to have our way, and so the minor irritations and annoyances became water off a ducks back. And that was the point when our marriage turned an important corner and suddenly began getting better by leaps and bounds.
With the exception of “righteous anger” (which we discussed the other day), anger isn’t worth it. Most things we get mad about aren’t really that important and the cost of being angry is just too high.
Tomorrow we will consider some of the reasons that we tend to get angry.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 