Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Anger management

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Micah 7:18-19
Who is a God like you? ... You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy ... You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Psalm 103:9-12
The Lord will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever ... as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Albert Ellis developed Rational Emotive Therapy, based on his idea that emotions result from beliefs about experience:

A(an activating event)occurs and I

Believe certain things about that event. What I believe results in

Consequential feelings. Then I

Decide to do something.

A-B-C-D. Simple. Easy to remember.

Because my thoughts and beliefs are often inaccurate or irrational, my emotions are inappropriate as well. I might feel too much or too little about something. I might take something personally when it was not intended that way. I might get angry over "nothing." (Of course, it was not nothing to me.) And often what I decide to do in response becomes an activating event for someone else. And the whole thing starts all over again.

Robert McGee, in The Search for Significance, applies this model to God, who also experiences emotion. But God's thoughts are accurate. He does not have "issues," so consequently his emotions are right for the situation. Because God's thoughts are true, his emotions are also true.

I feel a little uncomfortable talking about God like this, but McGee's idea makes sense to me. When God is angry with me, it's because he's seeing my sin clearly and accurately. He knows it will further separate me from him and draw me closer to Lucifer, the devil, the jerk. All of God's thoughts and feelings are lined up with truth.

I also think he is angry with the devil. My own anger produces a surge of adrenalin which provides my body strength and determination to fight or flee. In God's case his anger with the deceiver generates strength to "hurl all my iniquities into the depths of the sea."

As God turns his attention back to me, his anger fades and is replaced with compassion. Does He see me as a victim, and feel sorry for me? Maybe, but He knows I have made choices that make me selfish, that make it easy for me to follow Satan's whispered suggestions. And I do precious little to redeem myself, although God appreciates my remorse and confession, even if it is short-lived.

Where does God's grace come from? Using Ellis' model:

Activating event is the sacrifice God made of himself as Jesus for me.

Belief: that this sacrifice is both necessary and sufficient to repair the relationship between us.

Consequently, he can feel the compassion and love he felt for me orignally and

Decides to extend me grace and forgiveness finally and forever.

I praise you, Lord, with all my soul. Let me never forget your benefits. You forgive all my sins and heal all my diseases. You have redeemed my life from the pit and crowned me with love and compassion. Because of you my youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Devotions Archive

Anger management

Saturday, March 14, 2009