Forgiveness and Trust, Part 1
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Colossians 3:12-13
Several years ago, Susan and I had the privilege of developing a series of videos for a Christian television network. Instead of using a studio for production, a professional film crew was sent to our home, and for a period of weeks our home became the backdrop for the series.
One of the things that made us a little nervous about having our home filmed was how areas needing dusting or a fresh coat of paint would appear on television. No matter how beautiful your home is or how good a homemaker you are, if people live there, things can get messy. Inevitably, somebody has to take out the trash.
Did you ever notice when you empty the trash, even when you use a plastic liner, things manage to go between the liner and the can itself? I’m always tempted to simply put in a new liner and leave “whatever that is” in the can. But, the longer it stays there, the more unpleasant it becomes to clean it out.
All of us have had experiences that created pain and sadness in our lives. People do things that negatively affect us, and we become angry and frustrated. We must learn to deal with our anger. If we don’t know how to deal with it, the hurts will become like smelly garbage in our lives.
Almost two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul wrote, “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. And, do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26-27). It is important to see that Paul didn’t say it is a sin to be angry. We do need to realize, however, that when we are angry, sin is close at hand. We must guard against it.
It is vital for us to learn how to deal with our anger so it doesn’t turn into bitterness, eating us up from the inside out. When the Bible tells us not to let the sun go down while we’re still angry, we are left with only two options. Either we have to stop the sunset or we have to learn how to get rid of our anger. I’ve never had any success at stopping the sunset, so I have learned how to deal with anger. The solution does not involve pretending I’m not angry. Getting rid of anger involves learning to forgive.
The freedom to forgive is only gained when we understand the true nature of forgiveness. Is there something in your life you thought you could never forgive? Or, have you wondered if you could ever be forgiven?
What does it mean to forgive? Has anybody ever done something to make you angry? Or, are you one of those people who never gets angry?
We used to kid my dad sometimes, because when he was younger, he would occasionally lose his temper and express his anger in ways unlike his usually genial self. When I was born, Dad was almost fifty and had grown in grace. But, every now and then, he would start to get irritated and as the irritation grew, he wouldn’t recognize it. So, his children would lovingly apply some humor. Imitating his deep bass voice, my older sister would say, “I’m not angry,” at which point my dad was gracious enough to laugh at himself.
Sometimes we don’t admit our feelings honestly. Some Christians never get angry; they just get hurt. It’s funny that when they’re hurt, they act a lot like other people act when they’re angry.
We all get angry whether we’re honest about it or not, whether we realize it or not, whether we know how to express it appropriately or not. The Bible doesn’t say, “Don’t get angry;” instead, we are told, “In your anger, do not sin.”
It’s okay to get angry. Jesus is perfect, but he got angry. Jesus expressed his anger appropriately and was angry for the right reasons. Anger is not necessarily a negative thing, but it needs to be expressed appropriately and in the right context.
It’s natural to get angry because “I’m not getting my way,” but it’s wrong! It’s immature, selfish, typical human behavior. But, if I’m angry because God has been mocked or because someone is being mistreated, that is appropriate.
We need to learn to get angry about the things that make God angry and not get angry simply because we didn’t get what we wanted.
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