Devotional Song: Go to this link – Please take your time to see a video of a healing song performed by Queen Latifah, Fix Me, Jesus, a prayer of brokenness for the only One Who can really repair the damage in our souls … Jesus.
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Highlight Passage - NLT: Colossians 3: 8…
8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.
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Highlight Passage: Colossians, Chapter 3, Verses 1-17… GO TO THIS LINK … [NLT]
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Reference Passage #1: Romans 6: 11 … [Dead to sin – alive in Christ.] … [NLT]
11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
Reference Passage #2: Philippians 4: 6-7 … [NLT] … [Anxious for nothing!] …
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
My Journal for Today: How many of us have let anger simmer in our souls too long; and finally it explodes to damage a relationship … maybe even a total breakdown. Well, Os Hillman, in his devotional today, uses the word picture of a warning light coming on in our car; and if we ignore it, the scene in the attached photo might result; … an engine breakdown on the side of the road.
It doesn’t take someone with a Ph.D. in counseling to see where Hillman’s word picture is taking us, does it? No, … we all too often ignore the warning light of anger in our lives; and such lack of vigilance, at least driving us to check under the hood of our emotional engine, can lead to a serious blow-up in the vehicle of a marriage, friendship, or some other relationship.
It’s a truism that our pride and desire for control can lead us to let frustration in a relationship move into anger; and even with this emotional warning light, we quite often let things go on far too long until … POWEE [!!] … an explosion and breakdown in a relationship. The Apostle Paul was doing all he could to help Christians avoid such relational and/or spiritual damage when he warned them (well, us too!) about doing something when we sense our anger boiling (see the highlight verse above in Col. 3: 8). And in other of Paul’s letters he exhorted Christians to avoid letting the power of sin get a foothold in our soul (see Romans 6: 11).
No, … God’s advice, again through Paul (e.g., in Phil. 4: 6-7) was (and is) to “check under the hood” of our emotional engine and PRAY, as Queen Latifah prays in the song link for today, Fix me, Jesus, fix me!” Therefore, my fellow Christian, let’s pay attention when our warning light of anger comes on, allowing us to “check under the hood” and set aside the anger to get our spiritual engines fixed, avoiding the breakdown WHICH WILL RESULT if we let anger prevail too long.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, I will do what You said through Isaiah (26: 3), focusing on you, to let Your peace take away my anger. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online blog entitled Today God Is First [TGIF], authored by Os Hillman. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read Hillman’s TGIF blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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