Love Is... Part 7

Love is... Not easily angered.

Anger is a natural human emotion. Even the girl from Enchanted got angry at one point! There are times that you will get angry in life, and anger is not necessarily a sin in itself. What you do with your anger can be a sin.

Anger is clearly a dangerous thing. There are several times where anger is mentioned in the Bible. The most known being,

"'Be angry and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your anger, nor give place to the devil."

"Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you."

Ephesians 4:26-27, 31-32

Keeping anger, like a grudge, within you can cause so much damage to yourself and others. You should forgive before the day is over because the longer you hold on to your anger the longer it will wrap it's vines around you and infect you. Anger festers over time, like an untreated wound. Yes, that is a disgusting sounding metaphor, but that is just the way it is. Anger can lead to wrath and hate.

"Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."

1 John 3:15

In God's eyes to hate someone is the same as murdering them, just as lust after a person is adultery. To hate a person you are first angry with them, you let the anger grow and fester inside of you, and then slowly you begin to hate them. This is a sin that we need to repent for.

Another dangerous thing about hate is that it gives place for the Devil to work in your life. That little seed grows under your "fertilizer" as it dwells and the Enemy also feeds it. You give them access to your heart and emotions and are being manipulated. The subtle thoughts that are put in your mind are more damaging over time than you think. Think of it like grains of rice. You add a grain each time with each thought, they seem so small. Over time you find that "all of a sudden" you have a gallon of rice stacked up. It is important to throw out each grain of rice as it comes in, before it can add up.

Anger, as previously said, is not sin. Jesus and God both have "righteous anger" and are angry. But remember that His anger lasts but a moment but His favor lasts a lifetime. (Psalm 30:5) A brief moment of anger seems to be okay, but it is something to be careful with. We all have emotions and we all get angered at times, it is what we do with it and if we can control it and forgive - "Be angry and do not sin".

It does not say "love is never angry", because God has been angry at times, and he is love, and he is perfect. It says "Love is not easily angered". This, I believe, goes hand in hand with patience. To have the patience, forgiveness, and love to not be angry with others easily.

Think about it, how often are we mad at people? We have short and quick cuss words and names for people who anger us, "Jerk, Stupid, Idiot." (I will not go into the cussing though.) We also make the noises, "ARRGH, UGH, AAAAHH, GRRR!" I know I make these noises. When you are driving, working, at school, shopping, walking, etc. these come to mind. Any time you interact with other people there is a chance you will get angry at them because out of our pride we think that they are being stupid because they are not doing things our way (AKA the "right way") or respecting us in the way we feel that we need to be treated. Admit it, you know this to be true.

Now imagine the life of Christ, pure love in the flesh. He was beaten, mocked, spit on, glared at, probably was shoved and pushed and people would repeatedly "wag their heads" at him. He was right and perfect and knew how people should act, in our standards he had every right to be angry at these people. Yet he was not easily angered, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) He did not spit back, mock back, shake his fist, cuss, or scream in aggravation like we do. He was angry for a brief moment when he saw The Lords house, his Fathers house, turned into a place of business and being used the wrong way. Even after he was angry those times he forgave and continued on.

Is that our attitude? Is that my attitude?

I am still working on not being easily angered, it is far harder than it sounds... I would call quick anger "annoyance", when you roll your eyes and internally (or vocally) are upset with a person for a small thing they do, and one by one the rice stacks up. If we wish to love all people, as Christ does, than we need to work on having patience with people. Repent and forgive each time you are angered, and slowly your spirit is built up and you can notice it more quickly over time. This is strengthening your sprit, you patience, your love, and you "Christ-likeness". This is strengthening what is mean to be a "Christian".

"By this they will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

(John 13:35)

To be like Christ (to be a disciple - to be just like your "Rabbi") is to love, and it should be noticeable. Not being angered easily is noticed in our culture, so try it out and we can draw them to Christ.

Refining the faith,

-C.A.M.

Photo Credit: Myself, http://pens4chopsticks.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4lcl48

Love Is... Part 1

Lately I have been feeling like I should write about love, as in 1 Corinthians 13 love. So I finally gave in today and decided to start this "series" about love.

Not to be too "Bible Study" on everyone but I just wanted to go to each of the 15 aspects of love one at a time. So here we go!

Love is... Patient

"Patience is a virtue!" is something that I heard a lot growing up. Patience is such a huge part of being a Christian and I feel like it can be overlooked. Patience is a "virtue", a fruit of the spirit, and an aspect of love. If it is mentioned so much in the Bible that should mean that it's really important, right?

I also think that why it's mentioned so many times is because it really is one of the hardest things to have in your life. You have to love like Christ and model a godly life to be patient with people. Patience is "the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering, without getting angry or upset." This does not sound like an easy thing to me.

Now I am sure other people are like this but I always considered myself a patient person. Then one day God decided that I should see how human and impatient I truly am. For a week it seemed like every single thing that happened would call for me to be patient. I had to accept and love people through the delay, trouble, and suffering of myself. It was so incredibly aggravating! By the end of that week and saw how weak I was. I had to hold in my frustration and then I would go and ask God for strength and for love. I walked out of my dorm room one day in a silent fury and saw 1 Corinthians 13 written on the white board by my Core Advisor... It seems like she would always team up with God to convict me at all the right times.

It is easy to be patient when you wait for a person for a few extra minutes. It can be pretty easy to wait in line, wait for a phone call, or wait for your food to come. What about tolerating trouble or suffering? I think that is where the patience of Christ come into play. It is not so easy to be patient when you have to be patient with a person who does every one of your pet peeves, when you are going to be late to a very important event because of another person, and when somebody hurts you over and over again. I don't know about you but these things are hard for me to be patient with.

This is true love for others. When we prioritize others above ourselves and "love our neighbor as ourself" we are going to have to be patient with them. They were running late, you still love them and do not lash out at them. They keep insulting you, you do not insult them back and instead pray for them and keep loving them. The person may seem annoying to you, but is that the love of God? We are to love others as God has loved us. Do you not think that God has been so patient with us? God is so immensely patient! He deals with all of our broken promises and sins that we are addicted to. He still loves us because He is love and love is patient.

I find myself so selfish that I take the patient love of God for myself but I do not want to show it to others. As Christians we are to be known by our love. I learned so much about what true love is when I was an intern at Teen Mania. I lived with five girls that I had never met before, I worked with people I did not know very well and talked to all types of people on the phone all day. Most importantly I learned more about the love God has for us, and it was a breakthrough moment in my life. I was shocked to see a glimpse of Gods incredible love for me and for us all. Then I found a verse saying to love others as He first loved us... So I am supposed to love people n the way God loves me? How can I possibly do that?

Through Christ...

Oh, patience! You are such a difficult fruit to cultivate and such a difficult part of love to constantly show. Something that you should be careful of is a prayer for patience. God tends to not give us what we pray for when they are character traits, he gives us the opportunity to grow in it. Also, boasting to yourself that you are patient is dangerous, as previously stated. It is still a good thing to grow in though. If you feel like you are not patient then ask for it and then be prepared to grow.

So is there ever a time where we should stop being patient? Well, is there ever an appropriate time to not love others as Christ said to? We tend to think, "I'll be patient, but there is a point where they don't deserve to have me be patient and they just need to grow up and learn a lesson."

Love is not supposed to be an easy thing, an overly romantic thing, or just an emotion we feel for others. It is hard work. We always are to be patent/loving! What they do does not matter because Christ loved us through all the junk in our lives and we should show that same love.

I want to be a patient person. I want to be okay with circumstances and trouble caused by others. To do this I need the love of Christ and His strength to do so. So let us all practice cultivating patience in our lives from now on, and be patience even through the suffering, just as Christ was.

Keeping the Faith,

C.A.M.

Photo Credit: http://livelovederby.blogspot.com/