RENEW YOUR MIND - ANGER

 

How are you thinking today?

Are you overcome with anger and unforgiveness?  Are you letting the words and/or actions of another person towards you consume you?

Did you know that anger and unforgiveness allows the person that wronged you to control you?

You may ask how that can be.

Imagine getting invited to a large social gathering at a friend's house.  You gladly accept the invite and look forward to going......until you find out that the "ex-friend" who did or said something to hurt you was going to be there.  Instantly, you decide you're not going.  That person's presence at the gathering is controlling your decision to whether you attend or not.  Instead of going to the offender and talking things out and getting the air cleared of the offense, you decide you'd rather stew in your anger.  Maybe you're not in the place right then to talk it out, but that doesn't mean you skip because no one said you had to have any interaction with them.

In Psalm 37:8 says:

Cease from anger and forsake wrath; do not fret; it only leads to evil doing.

Also, we read in Colossians 3:12-13:

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

It's pride that prevents a person from forgiving someone who has hurt them.  It takes humility to be able to set aside your feelings of being offended and offer forgiveness to the offender.  Forgiving someone isn't a suggestion, but rather a command.  The sins we committed that put Christ on the cross are so much more heinous than what someone did to us and if Christ can forgive us, then we must be willing to forgive others.

Forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean we have to restore our relationship with that person.  Sometimes we may have to cut ties with them, but we still must forgive them just to give ourselves peace of mind and keep their offense from festering in our minds on a daily basis.

If there's someone who has wronged you and you are still harboring anger, resentment, and unforgiveness towards them, you need to let go of that.  It may require you to pray for the strength to do so and you may not "feel" like doing it, but if you do it, you may find as time goes on that those emotions of anger and resentment eventually fade away.