By Ken Fletcher
“If you get angry, does that make you unspiritual? Are you not walking in love because you want to knock them in the head? Listen, you are a person. You’re gonna get angry at the messed up stuff here in this present world. Things are not perfect, ya know. I think that to get angry sometimes means you are still breathing air on this present fallen earth. And, you are walking around in a fallen body. Sure, you’re gonna get angry sometimes. BUT. Does it mean you loose control when you are angry? You can be very angry, and the other person you are angry at not even have a hint that you are. That, my friend, is self control. Keeping yourself in right control even though you are experiencing that angry feeling all over your body. Yep! You can! It really is a matter of your will. What you decide to do. You can go along with your feelings and follow after them and they will lead you into a bad place. You or others will be hurt. Words may be spoken that damage. It can get flat ugly, as you know. But, the wise person thinks ahead into the future of what will happen if certain words or actions are allowed to be done or spoken. The wise person understands and controls. The foolish one goes with the feelings and finds themselves in the middle of strife. The results of going with the feelings is not good in many situations. Self control. We certainly do get opportunities to practice don’t we! But, that’s part of the deal down here in the matrix. Strife is all around. I like what my former pastor, Keith Moore, said. And, in the 10 years I was a part of the church in Branson, MO, I saw it in practice all the time. He said that strife is the manifest presence of the devil. It draws demons like poop draws flies. He, as the pastor there at Faith Life Church, would not permit any strife among the staff and volunteer workers at the church. He treated strife like poison. To be avoided at all costs. So, we all practiced it there in our interaction with each other. It was a wonderful atmosphere there. Excellence was everywhere. Things just flowed. I believe it was in part to brother Moore not allowing any strife there. None! It was looked at as a serious matter. I can attest to this first hand because I played bass in the band for a number of years. I witnessed these things. It was a privilege to serve there with those wonderful brothers and sisters. But, we learned so much too while we were there. So, listen, don’t be condemned because your feeling angry about something. Just deal with those feelings properly. Talk to Jesus about it. Whatever it is. He really does understand. But, in the mean time, exercise self control while you get things resolved inside of yourself. We must all resist strife in our lives. It brings drama. It brings accelerated heart rates and higher blood pressures. Negative results happen in the body. So, the idea is to not follow after stife. But, refuse it any place in us or among us. We really do love people. Even if we’re angry at them. But, we cannot stay that way. It must be resolved within us. We must stay in peace. That’s what is important. Yiedled to the Lord. Allowing Him to direct us into the best way to deal with our negative feelings about it. Then, we simply do what He says. We stay in peace. We stay in love. We stay in self control and we stay away from that nasty stuff called strife. Yuk!” KF
