Anger
by Sara Rivas
Good morning, Downey Church friends and family. And it’s so nice to be here with you again. I hope you are having a lovely summer break.
So I wanted to share something that has been a theme for us this summer. We feel like God sometimes talks to us in themes. And so this summer’s theme, unfortunately, has been anger. And so we’ve been listening to sermons. And we had this really good sermon when we were out in Cambria this summer, and it was about God’s anger. And it was so amazing. So it just pretty much says how God, when he gets really angry, what he does when he’s angry is he says, fine, do what you want. It was an amazing sermon and I’m like super not doing any justice to it, but he doesn’t get angry and do mean things like we do. He is so perfect. And so, then there was that.
And then we also have been reading a couple of books, and we’ve been rereading some books. And I feel like God has been nudging us to, hey, go back to that one. I think you forgot the big lesson from that book. One of those books has been Unaffendable. It’s a really good read. And so Unaffendable just reminds us that yes, even though people hurt you and your natural response is to be hurt, that you can choose to not be hurt. It’s a very intriguing book, and it does pose a lot of questions to you, and it really makes you think twice. The author was once told about this idea of choosing to not be offended, and he thought, well, I don’t know if that’s really biblically based, is that really a thing? And so he scoured through his Bible and he realized, yeah, God wants us to feel angry. and he’s okay with us feeling angry, but he doesn’t want us to keep our anger. He wants us to just, you know, work through it and let it go before it’s bedtime. Let it go, don’t let the day end without you processing or getting rid of that anger. That’s what God wants for us.
And so we’ve been having a lot of reminders of that this summer, because now all four of us are home for the summer and our two boys are having a lot of yes, no wars. So I don’t know if you’ve been. ever stuck in a yes, no, where you really are confident if the answer is a yes and the other person is confident the answer is a no, and you just go back and forth, yes, no, yes, no, and you’re just really not gonna get anywhere, you’re really hitting a wall with your responses. And so I was telling my boys, I said, do you know what? Like, is it really worth losing your brother and making him so angry and ruining the rest of your evening and possibly not having a best friend if you keep doing this to him? Or is it worth to just let it go and accept that you guys have differences in opinion? And so luckily, they decided, yeah, it’s okay to just have a difference in opinion. And they were able to just go back to playing, and they were fine.
And so I just want to remind you when you are, you know, something happens and anger, you know, you feel anger inside of you, it is okay to feel anger. Just process it. give it to God and move on. Don’t hold on to it. Don’t keep it for yourself because it’s not a very nice feeling and it doesn’t do your body any good. And so anyway, so we were also reading the story about Joseph and how he was able to show grace to his brothers. And so initially, I’m guessing, I don’t know, the Bible doesn’t say that he was angry, but he did kind of want to test them. And so he wanted to see what they would do if if he accused them of being spies, you know, and he kept them for three days. And I’m sure maybe he was just thinking like, what do I do with them? Do I offer grace? Do I not offer grace? Do they still hate me? Are they still mean? You know, and then he heard them in the background saying, oh man, this is probably happening to us because of the bad things we did to our brother. And so then his heart was like, okay, you know, maybe they’re not the bad people that I thought they could be. And then he was able to give them grace and he was able to. Forgive them and invite them all over to Egypt to live with Him. And it’s just such a beautiful story of where someone can choose to be angry and he chose not to. He chose instead to offer grace.
So this summer, when you are stuck in something, choose to offer grace instead. Choose to not carry that anger. And just let it go, give it to God. And I hope that you have an amazing rest of your summer.
Dear Jesus, we love you so much and we thank you for being. a mighty gracious God and that you don’t, you know, send fire down on us every time we make mistakes. So you just give us time to do better and to learn more about you. Thank you so much for the God that you are. You’re amazing and I’m so grateful that we have served you Lord. We ask you to please be with us the rest of the summer. Help us to… Choose to not stay angry. Help us to choose to give grace because that’s what you give us. We love you so much and we thank you for all of your blessings in your very sweet name we pray. Amen.
Bye.