Dealing with Anger

Psalm 35,

Author Guardian

Dealing with Anger

Lord God we acknowledge you in all our ways and we ask that you direct

our paths, We commit to you all that we are and all our ways, that you might

direct us in your ways

We commit this time to you and ask that you speak into our lifes ,

that your word becomes a living word to us and that it becomes more and more a

living word to us ,because you are a Living God ,

Involved in every aspect of our lifes, and we as living stones who are rejected

by the world, come under your capstone and head, you who were rejected by the

builders are our builder, the one who restores and renews and picks up the broken

pieces of our lifes and mends us and makes us whole

You Died for the builders that the builders might know your salvation and be

part of your eternal Kingdom, you who forgave even though we had wronged you,

you who saved even though we rejected you, you who gives love upon love, which is

the greatest gift of all,

Repair us Lord and build us up that we might work together to build upon our

faith and that you might build us up into a body and bride united

That we would in turn build each other up and be used by you to rebuild broken walls

and lifes

You knew hate and were despised and rediculed that we would know your

love and once it was finished you sat down at the right hand of the Father the

firstborn of many

Your Church rises up as the dawn and with her banner held high in

radiance and splendour as pure and as spotless as a bride ready for her King

and you escort her to her chambers

Lord King of the ages maker of every molecule and partical in the

universe we cry out to you as the very rocks would cry out to you and we

hail you Lord of Lords and King of Kings

In Jesus precious name amen

A short time ago I found myself getting angry at someone and I repeated back to

them the words that they had said to me, now what I had said was wrong, at the

time I felt an anger rage up in me and the words burst out like a volcano, before

I had finished speaking or shouting I realsied what I had said , but it was

too late

The damage was done you see, no matter what that person had said to me

, the fact is I should not have responded in the way I did and in the end it is

not how people treat us or speak to us , but its how we respond back

Anyway there were consequences to my verbal reply and I had to repent

and turn back and ask the person to forgive me and I had to apologise to them

You see in the end it is'nt what happens to us, whether we have what

seems to be a raw deal in life or the best life on the planet, in the end its

about how we deal and cope with what we have been given and how we respond

Its not so much how people treat us or speak to us but how we respond back to them

Its no longer an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, in other words its not

"well you hurt me so I'll hurt you " or " God you gave me this life,

its your fault,I hate you " or " Well that person kicked me so I kicked them back "

Jesus takes it further in our new life, new testament, new creation, with our

new heart and new testament life testimony, you see this is our

testimony, its His testimony, its the testimony of what He can do , not what I

can do,or you can do

Jesus takes it further with this new body of beleiving people and says

" Turn the other cheek "

Its very hard to turn the other cheek is'nt it ?

This is'nt about someone smacking you in the jaw bone or walking all

over you and you saying " O thats ok , do it again "

Turning the other cheek is much deeper than that, in fact it goes as

far as to the Cross, turning the other cheek is not just about superficial things

Turning the other cheek may be simple if your talking about a nasty

word from some person you don't know or someone at work who decides to tread

on your big toe for a laugh

But " turning the other cheek " is much deeper than that, in fact

Jesus took and bore all even to the Cross

Turning the other cheek may mean forgiving someone who has hurt you badly,

(forgive them Father for they know not what they do)

It may mean asking for forgiveness ....when you feel you are the one

who has been wronged

you see we can look to Jesus and identify with Him in all these

things, as He demonstrated to us the very words He spoke. these words were

not just theology....but He lived the words He spoke, because He is and was

the " Living Word"

And this living word is in us ...the " Living Stones " the Living

Temple " of the Holy Spirit being built into a building to give glory and

honour and praise to a living God

We are the Rocks and stones and bricks of that wall that Nehemiah built, we are

the blocks that God chose to use to build His Kingdom

We are not just the people building the walls of that city, of that

building , of that Kingdom , for God is the builder and architect and He is the one

who moulds and shapes and is the foundation.

And again we see that God builds and yet He uses us to build, and

again we see our co operation and participation with God, we see relationship

and our playing a part in the building of Gods Kingdom.

1. Participation...2. Co Operation ...3, Conditions....4.Relationship...

We are active Living practising Christians, we do not sit back and say

" well its finished " It is not finished YET, there is work to be done,

for He who said " It is finished " Is past...present and future

We are living in the present where God can use us to build and spiritually

build others up, we are living in the present where the " Great Commission "

is still being lived out and we are STILL in "The Book Of Acts "

Living out that book as Gods writes down every day of our lifes which He

Has already prepared in advance so that we might walk in His ways and

Acknowledge Him as the Author of life and the day He has given

We have work to do as God leads us on in Him and as we are His hands

and feet and eyes and ears, and we work together as a body, building

stone upon stone on the foundation that is Christ being led by the head

who is the Capstone

Nehemiah 4 (New International Version)

You see all this will fall into place as we go on and it is our

desire that God speaks into our hearts and lifes through this message

as we seek Him and ask Him to speak

And so we turn quickly on our journey to Nehemiah 4 and we see that

sanballat and tobiah were angry at the sight of Gods people rebuilding

the walls and they started to mock and they became ANGRY

And Nehemiah spoke to the Lord and said " Hear us, O our God, for we

are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. "

This is a co operation of the people with God to rebuild the walls, it is not a

" well its finished and done and we just sit back now because God

has done it all "

And so the people rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem together and in fact

we are the temple of praise being built, past present and future

God can rebuild our past, God can rebuild our present lifes and hearts

and God can build our future, for His purposes and plans far outweigh

any pre conceived ideas or imaginations that we might have

We are not just the people colaborating with God to rebuild , but we

are those very stones, with Christ the corner stone, the capstone, at

the head, and though we may be rejected and mocked and scorned and ridiculed

and persecuted and harrassed , we look not to repay evil with evil but we

turn the other cheek

Look how Nehemiah responded to Sanballet, He is turning over the words

back onto the people who gave them , not by responding in the same way but by

turning the other cheek and asking God to turn the words back on the people

who gave them.

And then He continues to build , having given the mocking and insults to God

God builds His Kingdom , but we also play a part, we have a participation,

a role.

A purpose , a meaning, a reason, a goal, a work to do

Every stone in that wall has and serves a purpose, and if one stone is

taken from the wall then the defence is weakened and the wall becomes weaker

I had a vision of a roof but some of its ridge tiles were missing and the

waters where getting into the house and I asked God what this meant and He

spoke and said that

" Some had let the enemy in for when they had not made

Jesus the capstone and the cornerstone of that house and they had worshipped

and made something or someone else their God, the capstone was no longer at

the top and the waters were able to get in through that persons life, the

enemy waits and he lurks waiting for an oportune time"

Be alert and be ever vigilant and seek to have and make Jesus that Capstone

every day whether it rains or shines, whether life is good or bad, whether

we feel like praising or not, make Jesus Lord every day

And so I take that word upon myself and for myself and I examine myself and my

atitudes but I also place this upon those who feel that this word is for them

And so we also see that God adds to the stones and His Kingdom

continues to expand, as God creates new lifes and new hearts and more of His

Children come to Him and they are added to His adopted family as parts of

that living wall

But we also see that we have a part to play in the building of that

wall for we are the ones who can be used to pick up those stones and place

them on the wall to help build the Kingdom of God

We can be used to build Gods Kingdom and bring others to a saving

Knowldge of God and his salvation and those people who come to God in turn

can lead others to Him

This is a spiritual wall, a spiritual Kingdom, A Kingdom without

walls, but again with walls , another paradox.

You see the Spiritual is far bigger and greater than the physical,

what we see is only a very small part of life, the invisible is far greater

than the visible

As is God far greater and bigger than we could ever comprehend.

Although we build the wall of defence around ourselves and our lifes

are built on the word of God being the living word in the living wall of

people, so too the armour and the word of God being that wall of defense

and protection also becomes the living words that knock down the old wall

Hope your still with me ?

And so there is a kind of tearing down of defenses and attitudes and

the " old you "

And a kind of " building up " of the new, which is the Kingdom and

the new stones are built into the building that is the Temple of the living God

And so we " Turn the other cheek " as Nehemiah " turned the other cheek "

As Jesus Himself " turned the other cheek " and that is not so easy to do when

we feel that we are the ones that have been wronged, when we feel "

they deserved it "

when we feel " they hurt me so I kicked them back "

" Why should I ask them for forgiveness ? they are in the wrong ? not me ?

Oooo thats a deep deep cheek turn, that may hurt more than the wrong

that has been done to us !!

To turn it over to God and to let Him turn it back on those poeple who

have wronged us

Its so easy to get angry and to feel that raging burning up inside and

to just let loose and simply let those feelings come out, so so easy to do

that, its so easy to tear down, its so easy to demolish, easy to pull down,

all you have to do is to find a weak spot , a weak point, thats so easy

Not so easy to build and repair is it ? to build you have to prepare

and think about and plan and consider how your going to build first,

you have to think about the cost involved and make plans... then its one

block at a time, one day at a time, building block upon block ,stone upon

stone, it may take years.........

Anyone can tear down and find a weak spot in a persons life, not so

easy is it .... to build a person up ?

Even more so too build up a person that has wronged you !! that person

may not even know they have wronged you, or they may, but either way,

we turn the other cheek, we simply give it over to God we.....commit it

to Him in all things

1 Peter 5:7 (New International Version)

7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

Proverbs 3:6

King James Bible

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths

When we become angry or when we feel that anger raging up inside us , it can be

like a volcano, its not easy to tame a volcano is it ?

Can anyone calm a volcano or tell it where to go ? volcanoes are

formed slowly over time as molten rock and gasses from the earths crust

slowly press upwards winding there way through the weakest points in the

earths crust

Volcanoes go un noticed for years and years, they slowly seep up

through the weakest points through the cracks and tunnels in the rock ,

The lava and gas or you could say " the anger of the earth " sits there for

years unnoticed until one day with an raging untamed violent angry disastrous

eruption the lava bursts up into the open and devours all that stands in its way

This so reminds me of anger that can be hidden away for years, un

noticed, silent, quiet, in a persons heart and life ...waiting for the weaked

point, waiting for the weakest spot,ready to boil over

There can be this part in many people, even those who think they are

fine, they have no problems with anger !! secretly in the heart and life of that

person boiling underneath where no one can see, is that anger, just waiting to

erupt, with disastrous consequences

Of course it doesn't have to be anger, it can be guilt, hurt, unforgiveness

and many more feelings and emotions, as soon as these things bubble up to the

surface they need to be given over to God, we need to ask the Lord where it

came from,

wheres the weak points are in our lifes... wheres the cause ? and so many other

things, we in all our ways acknowledge Him and He directs us as to what to do

And so I found myself in this situation, where I became angry and I asked

forgiveness and a few days later I started to look at what the bible message

might be for this week and the message was Psalms 35,36 and 37 and the Lord

spoke directly to me through this,

You see these Psalms are about warfare, they are about " turning the other cheek "

they are about ackowledging Him and they are about ANGER

Is'nt it great how God uses the situations in Davids life to produce

the prayers and Psalms of David ? this is'nt theology, this is a real life

King David speaking out of His life and heart and experiences and singing and

talking to God, being inspired by the Holy Spirit

Is'nt it strange how God brings this psalm at this time just as I

experienced the same thing ?

And just as God began speaking to me about anger, He directs me to

these Psalms ?

This is our God, this is Gods perfect timing, the chances of this happening at

this time a few days after my seeking and coinciding with the Psalms

we are looking at now at this time is probably a million to one

This is Our God and how God speaks through His word, the living word,

to the living stones of His temple being built into a temple of praise to

give Him glory

As I began to read through these Psalms suddenly scriptures came and God spoke

to me and so this message was born, three scriptures came to me

1.

Ephesians 6:10-20

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the

full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,

against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against

the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the

full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to

stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

2.

1 Corinthians 13 (New International Version)

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest

of these is love.

3.

Matthew 5 (New International Version)

38 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'

39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on

the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if someone wants to sue you

and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from

the one who wants to borrow from you.

Continues on to " loving your enemies " in verse 43

So with that we turn to Psalm 35

And here we see David where God has put him, God has put David in this position

of being King and yet He faces opposition,? he faces enemies, we know about Saul

pursuing David, and we also see that even Davids own men turn against him, we see

that even those in his own family turn against him ?

These men were fighting againgst God Himself and not against Dvaid and yet it seemed

to David that it was against Him and His life, why should men try to stop that which

God has put into place ?

This is where God intervenes, this fight is not for David to fight and He in the

wisdom that God has given Him and in love, asks for God to do what only God can do

So what does it nean when it says " enemies ? " we see that there where people

trying to kill David, even his own son absalom was trying to dethrone David and

was in fact an enemy of David and an enemy of God , as an enemy of God is one who

goes against Gods plans

We also see that Jesus himself had enemies far beyond number and still does to this

day, you will find that as a leader you will have many who are opinionated and many

who are just waiting to take your place and are waiting for you to fall

Even Jesus as He sat with His disciples to eat the " Last supper " had a betrayer

sitting at the table with Him eating the bread and drinking the wine and the

disciples once alerterd to a betrayer said " Who Lord ? " which of us will

betray you ? even the disciples were not aware of the " betrayer " sitting

amongst them !!

And we see that Jesus was betrayed with a " kiss " ?

See how subtle this is ? you may see many identical works and groups and they

may all seem the same, but how do you know that some are not simply copying ?

You may see many people doing what seems to be " good works " but good works

alone are not a sign, there are many counterfeits, and we know that satan

himself can appear as an angel of light

You see the enemy can be someone you do not even see as an enemy, !!

And so lets read Psalm 35:1-8

Psalm 35:1-8 (New International Version)

1 Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who

fight against me

2 Take up shield and buckler;arise and come to my aid.

3 Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me.Say to my soul,

"I am your salvation."

4 May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame;

may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay.

5 May they be like chaff before the wind,with the angel of the LORD driving them

away;

6 may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them.

7 Since they hid their net for me without cause and without cause dug a pit for me,

8 may ruin overtake them by surprise—may the net they hid entangle them,

may they fall into the pit, to their ruin.

We see again " The Angel of the Lord " mentioned .............

Here David is giving over his anger to the Lord and announcing that indeed God is in

control, God will take care of Davids enemies, those who seek to take Him off the

throne in which he has been placed.

God indeed put David on that throne, God put David in the position He was in and it

was for God to take David off the throne , it was not for man to decide

And so David is asking here in Psalm 35 for God to put on his amour and to fight the

fight and again we see a paradox as God is our armour, but here we see David asking

God to put on His Armour....

For it is only God who can fight against such powers that seek to overthrow Kingdoms

and powers that God Himself has put into place

And we go back to a previous message about the power we have as Christians and how

we do not have certain powers to overthrow those arch angels that rule over

principalities and goverments and nations, indeed our power as Christians is limited

to a certain degree and we must be very careful when praying and interceeding against

principalities of darkenss

For in some instances the battle belongs to the Lord "

Here David hands over HIS anger and rage and gives over to the Lord that which He

cannot do or handle in His earthly frame

We must know the powers we have as Christians, and the limits to which we are called,

for although we haVE Christ in us and we can do geater things, we are not God Himself,

amd we do have limitations, Christians beware and know your limitations

Great danger lurks with those who pray against the powers of darkness without having

the knowledge of God and wisdom of God, remember you are only in your earthly body

and you are no match to the evil arch angels who have the strength of many

And so David calls upon the Lord of Lords to bring justice ...

Psalm 36 continues in the same way and then we come to Psalm 37

Psalm 37:5-7 (New International Version)

5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:

6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause

like the noonday sun.

7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men

succeed in their ways,when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Again "Commit your way to the LORD;trust in him and he will do this"

King James Bible

I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall

build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith

the LORD of hosts.

In other words think upon Him.Think upon God and He will direct your steps

Lets go back to Psalm 37 as we read these words

Psalm 37:8-10 (New International Version)

8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.

9 For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more;though you look for them, they

will not be found.

I found myself asking that God would give me a love towards this person that was

beyond my human love, you see I was angry and I lashed out and I said something I

should,nt have done.

I repayed an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and I was wrong, its very easy

to say " They were wrong and I am right " Its very easy to repay , its very easy to

pull down, its very easy to " get the person back " its NOT so easy to forgive

someone when , they are in the wrong and you feel you deserve your revenge "

Forgive them and move on, if you do not the consequences are huge, it is for God to

bring justice upon these things and not for us

I found myself praying and asking for a love of God that is beyond my human love.

This is a word brought to you through my own life and experience as I walk with the

Lord and seek to serve Him,

And this is my prayer , that we find that love of God beyond our own love, for the

love of God is not a mushy love , it is not a love that only loves if .....it is not

a love that depends on feelings,

The love of God is a love that acts and a love that penetrates the foulest of hearts

and a love that changes the heart of the sinner and the enemy of God and makes the

hardest heart a heart that melts and cries out for mercy

God is the God who opens hearts and doors that no one close, He melts hearts that

cannot be opened so that no one can close that heart and He closes doors that no one

can open, He takes away the old and builds the new

He builds the wall of His word in our hearts that no one can take away and demolishes

the old wall of self that no one can open again ( except us )

The love of God is a love that loves no matter what and demonstrates That God is a God

of love, God will love you even though you may cut Him into a million pieces and make

Him into theology or religion or a meer God on paper

He will love you until you drop down and make Him King of your life

For He is a living God, and His word is a living word, and we are His living stones.

Pray with me now and know the love of God that surpasses all understanding

That Love of God that melts the hardest heart and love that is the greatest gift of all

Say or speak out or type these words and know His love that is beyond all reasoning

or understanding

Lord God In Jesus precious name I want and need and desire you love in my life,

Fill me now with that love that I may love the unloved , that I may have the greatest

gift of all that is from you and is you

And that I may seek this great gift, that I may love those that are

my enemies and that you may melt my heart, Lord I desire to know your love and

to know it as a reality in my life ,

In jesus name amen