Many times we are fast with situations that make us angry. But really, it’s not the situation that makes us angry, it’s because we choose how we want to react to situations, and sometimes we choose to get angry.
The Bible says, in James chapter 1:19 “slow to become angry”. Be slow to get angry. Don’t get angry too fast. Getting angry too fast can only cause problems.
But we all do it, we have all done it, we have all gotten angry.
Sometimes we think that God has to somehow change us. We get on our knees and pray. We ask God to take away our anger and sometimes, rarely, we meet people who have had these amazing, miraculous emotional healings and their anger, or their desire for alcohol and drugs is taken away. Sometimes alcoholics are healed from their alcohol addiction and they don’t even have any side effects. I even read a book once about a missionary in China who was working with heroin addicts. She got them to invite Jesus Christ into their lives and then got them to pray in tongues. Whenever they prayed in tongues the desire for heroin would disappear. No withdrawal symptoms. No shakes. Nothing.
But other times, most of the time, we have to choose not to drink, or not to get angry, or not to lust. We still need to pray. We still need to ask God. We still need to do something to overcome the thing that is wanting to control us.
In Genesis 4:7 we read
“But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
We must rule over sin. It doesn’t happen like some Calvanists think – you know, God is Sovereign, so therefore He has to take away my sin, and if He doesn’t take the desire away, oh well, I guess I have to keep on sinning.
That’s ridiculous.
James tells us in James 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:6 “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.”
Both of these church elders say: “humble yourselves”. It’s not God who humbles us, we must humble ourselves.
Sometimes this God is Sovereign stuff is just over the top. We as Christians have it in our minds that God is supposed to do everything, and if He doesn’t do it, then we say it wasn’t His will.
If someone is not healed – it wasn’t His will. If someone can’t stop taking prescription drugs they say – if God doesn’t take away the desire I cannot stop.
God says through His Word “humble yourselves.” You do it. You stop smoking. You stop getting angry. You stop wasting your time chasing the things of this world.
King Solomon, the wisest man in the world said in Ecclesiastes 6:9 “Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless–like chasing the wind.”
We as Christians had better learn that we are accountable and responsible for the way we act and behave. And that we should make every effort not to be angry with others.
This week I was getting angry about something, and I can’t even remember what. But instead of staying in my anger I chose to fast and pray.
Many Christians don’t make fasting and praying a habit. I do. I fast and pray every Friday for the ministry, and on and off other days when there are issues that are just not getting solved. I pray and fast for them and boom! God comes in like a lightning bolt and solves the problem, or provides the answers, or gives me peace. Somehow He answers. Somehow He provides. And it’s all because a fasted and prayed.
Yes we can fast and pray and God will answer our prayers. Again, some Christians are so stuck up on the God is Sovereign bit that they won’t even fast and pray for something because they think they are being proud by thinking they can ask something from God.
But Jesus Himself said:
“ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.”
We do the asking, seeking and knocking, not God.
A Somali I know is very close to accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. And this Somali said to me awhile ago. “I was about to pray to ask the Lord into my life and then I thought that if I am part of the elect, I don’t have to pray, because God is Sovereign and if I am part of the elect then I will get saved by God and I don’t have to do anything.”
Wow! How sad! How sick! That kind of teaching is from the hell.
The Bible says, Jesus says:
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
Jesus does the knocking, we do the opening. The knocking is hearing the Word of God spoken to you. The opening is asking Jesus Christ to come into your life and forgive you of your sins. By asking Jesus Christ into your heart and your life, and asking Him to forgive you, you will receive eternal life.
And if you are struggling with anger, fast and pray and ask God to help you with the situation that you are getting angry over. He will help you. He will. Yes He will. He guarantees it. Ask and you will receive.