God blessed Elizabeth and I with a most wonderful summer weekend even though we were both witnesses to pure hatred brought on by the devil.
Early Saturday morning after parking the minivan at Hyde Park I was victim of unbelievable slander. A man driving a shinny new Ford Expedition SUV asked me to move my Caravan forward to give him more room to park, though a sensible action, I explained I could not comply seeing how this would box my vehicle in making it near impossible to get back out. I figured he would understand after all, Expeditions are not only on the larger end of the SUV spectrum, they are down right ridiculous! I assumed he was used to “not fitting” in smaller parking spaces, what followed was a shower of insults and cussing, a display of anger I had never experienced over such a minute incident.
All I could do as the man followed me driving along the sidewalk was repeat “God bless you sir” and try not make eye contact so to avoid further provocation. To be honest, the non Christian part of me wanted to kick his ass… But righteousness prevailed and I simply kept walking.
Later that day Elizabeth kindly reminded a littering elderly woman that her tossing a lit cigarette in a mall parking lot was a punishable offense in the state of Florida. “Excuse me ma’am, did you know you could get $150 ticket for littering in Florida?” We were both shocked to hear the woman’s hateful reply shouted in deep smoker’s voice: “Oh yeah, so pick it up!”
What drives these people to be so rude? To carry such hatred? Or to show such awful manners and obvious disrespect for others, the environment or God himself?
Then, I take a good look in the mirror and realize it wasn’t too long ago I too yelled, cussed and littered. True this was before I was born again however, I think we have all been there and done that. Though losing one’s temper isn’t a crime, it is a sin.
God commands us to rid our hearts of hatred and anger. The bible features many passages on this topic:
Colossians 3:8 reads “But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth”.
In Ephesians 4:31, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice”.
1 Timothy 2:8 “I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling”.
And James, the brother of Jesus wrote “for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).
Since there will always be angry people on earth, I plan to continue walking as I did on Saturday and try ignore the shouting, the cussing and the pure evil that surrounds me for soon it could consume me. Concentrating on evil will turn any righteous person into evil themselves therefor, let us keep our focus on the Lord and not the storm around us.
Steer clear of anger as God commands you to. Fill your heart with love and allow your character to be an inspiration to others. Copy Jesus, act as He would and your life will be filled with pure joy instead of hate.
Let’s pray!
Father God;
We thank you for your blessings in our lives
And for inspiring us to seek shelter in you,
We thank you for keeping your promises
And for inviting us in your eternal Kingdom.
Lord father we pray that you will continue to look over us,
Our families, our friends and those in need
And that you will feed the hungry around our world,
Both physically and spiritually.
Lord we thank you for your love, your strength
And your forgiveness in our sins,
And ask you to strengthen us when faced with hate and anger
So that we may rejoice with you after the storm.
Praise God,
Amen!
This message was written by Daniel St.Pierre
Email: DanielStPierre@ThriveThroughChrist.com
