5. Realize that many sins are a distortion of something good of God’s.
I read Gary Chapman’s book: Anger, Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way. If you are looking for steps one, two, three and really practical hands-on stuff to do, this book is it. What it did for me was open my eyes to the fact that anger in itself is not wrong. God gave us the ability to be angry for a purpose ~ to help us to take action. However, there are justified situations for anger and there are situations that aren’t. The things I was reacting to were not justified situations and I wasn’t reacting in the right ways. So like I said, the enemy will take something God intended for good and distort it. If, anger is part of your “personality" then learn how to use it in the way God intended you too.
6. Identify Trigger Points
I realized that there were certain situations that would set me off. Understanding what those trigger points were helped me to make changes entering those situations. One for me was trying to get out the door. I know it sounds so dumb but I like to be on time. It seemed like “meltdown” time always came when I was trying to leave and get somewhere on time! This is where the eternal perspective really helped me. I also tried moving “leaving time” 10 minutes earlier so it really wouldn’t matter if a meltdown took place I would have the proper time to deal with it.
7. Understand where God is in this whole thing!
- Invite Jesus to fight for you! This came from a sermon by my pastor Tom Flaherty (8/19/07 A Pleasing Sacrifice starting @ 43 minutes). He talked about the enemy knocking at the door of your house and you always going to the door to answer and getting beaten up. He said the whole time Jesus is upstairs waiting for you to ask Him to open the door. If you would let Him open the door you wouldn’t have to deal with the enemy. So the next time the enemy is knocking ask Jesus to answer the door. This really worked for me and made a difference, so try it!
- I told you I put a rock in my rock bowl October 2007. I put the rock in after hearing a sermon by Brian White called Free Indeed. It is an hour long and I would definitely recommend that you take time to listen to the whole thing. This is where I understood where God was in all of this mess. I used to think God was at the end of my journey tapping his toes, with his arms crossed waiting for me to get it and that He was disappointed in me and didn’t understand why I didn’t get it. After this powerful sermon, I saw that God was the instigator (and I love Him for it!). He wanted my enemy DEAD. God was NOT going to be satisfied with second best, He was not going to be satisfied with me taking care of part of it but leaving the rest for my kids to deal with. God wanted this sin dead so He was willing to keep the fire burning until the enemy was DEAD. God wasn’t away from me tapping his toes, He was behind me, beside me and in front of me saying let’s kill this thing! When I realized that I was all for kicking this thing where the sun don’t shine! And I was using my anger in the right way now ~ to defeat the stronghold of the enemy.
So thanks for letting me share. I am so excited now. I can’t tell you what it is like to actually sit back and say, “Who is this responding now?” because I am responding with gentleness and patience. I still don’t think it is “me” but now I know that it is God working in me to do His work and it feels so good! So beloved if you’re struggling don’t get bogged down with the journey. Get God’s perspective and go for it! God purchased freedom for us and He wants our enemy dead, so keep fighting until he is dead!
No comments:
Post a Comment