My young grandson, Max, was playing with his toys on the driveway while I cleaned out my car. Hearing him make an angry sound, I turned to see what was bothering him. When he saw me look at him he said, “Mamaw, go get your camera and take a picture of me!”
Always happy to find an eager participant in a photo opportunity, I got my camera. He told me to wait a minute—then he put on his mad face and said, “Now, take the picture.” Obliging but curious, I asked him what he was mad about.
He told me that there was something that he’d been mad about a lot of times and he was just tired of it. This time, he wanted a picture to remind him he’d already been mad once and he didn’t need to go back to being mad again!
Holding his little arms up in surrender, he proclaimed, “That’s it, it’s over—now I can get on with my life; I got a picture to prove I already been mad about it once and went past it.”
Anger and bitterness can lead to broken relationships not only with each other, but with Jesus. One of satan’s tools is to keep pointing back to something that made us mad.
The devil knows that as long as we have anger and bitterness, we can’t have an intimate relationship with Christ..
Whatever anger we have must be brought out into the healing love of the cross. There is no hurt, no slight, no issue that is more important than our relationship with our Lord.
If something still makes you angry when you think of it, find scriptures that address anger and read them as part of your daily devotion.
Pray for the person who has slighted you. If necessary, seek a qualified Christian counselor to act as an arbitrator; but do not hold on to the anger!
Once dealt with, make a picture in your heart of the cross where Jesus defeated anger. Whenever satan points you back to the anger, point to the cross.
Matthew 5: 23-24 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”
The Holy Bible, New International Version®. Pradis Grand Rapids: The Zondervan Corporation, © 1973, 1978, 1984