Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from the group “Unspoken” singing … Call It Grace … poignantly singing that the only force we, as Christians, have to avoid anger and sin is God’s empowering grace.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Proverbs 20:3 … [NLT] …
3 Avoiding a fight is a mark of honor; only fools insist on quarreling.
… Me thinks some of us need to meditate on that one.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Proverbs 20:1-15 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God gives us the power, thru His grace, to deal with our emotions … especially our anger.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … Isaiah 26:3 [NLT] …
3 you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, … all those whose thoughts are fixed on You.
… God’s prescription to avoid sinful anger …
Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : … John 14:27 [NLT] …
27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. ... "
… Jesus would give His disciples His Spirit [and to us] to provide them (us) with His peace.
Reference Passage #3 [NKJV] : … Galatians 5:22-23 [NLT] …
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, goodness, faithfulness, 23 GENTLENESS, and SELF-CONTROL. There is no law against these things!
… Notice how many of God’s fruit [in CAPS], from His grace, must mature in our spirit to allow His spirit to quell our anger.
Reference Passage #4 [NKJV] : … Ephesians 4:26 [NLT] …
26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,
… Paul teaching on how we, as Christians must surrender to God’s grace, which allows us to control our anger.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Jennifer Benson Schuldt, used a story from a friend’s life to illustrate how God’s grace allows us to have self-control over our anger. The ODB author wrote: One morning in Perth, Australia, Fionn Mulholland discovered his car was missing. That’s when he realized he had mistakenly parked in a restricted zone and his car had been towed away. After considering the situation—even the $600 towing and parking fine—Mulholland was frustrated, but he decided not to be angry with the person he would work with to retrieve his car. Instead of venting his feelings, Mulholland wrote a humorous poem about the situation and read it to the worker he met at the tow yard. The worker liked the poem, and a possible ugly confrontation never took place.
These days we hear young people admonishing their friends to “chill out,” … because it’s so easy, isn’t it [?!}, in this fast-paced impersonal age, to let our anger boil out of control. Of all the fruit of God’s Spirit (see Gal. 5:22-23) the Lord has imparted to my spirit, several of them, which He gave us to control our anger, need some more maturing to allow God’s grace to help me quell my anger in situations which provoke my sinful desire to let anger burst forth from my humanity. … Can I get a witness?
In today's world, with all that Satan and the world does to divide and discourage us, it’s so easy to let our very human, and still sinful, spirits boil over with anger. But as Jesus said to His Disciples in that upper room before He went to the cross [see John 14:27] … that He would give us His grace through His Spirit, (as the linked song conveys) to allow us to have the choice to avoid our anger and to experience God’s peace (see also Isaiah 26:3).
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … dear Lord, … as I focus on You, even here today, help me tap in to Your grace to help me quell my anger. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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