Daily Devotional: Tuesday, Oct 20

Speaker: Jeremy Johnson

Theme: Taming the Tantrum Within You

Weekend Music links on iTunes: All the Earth Will Sing Your Praisesby Paul Baloche; Sing, Sing, Sing by Chris Tomlin; Love Came Downby Ben Cantelon; You Saw Meby Hillsong.

Read:  Matthew 5:21-26

Proverb Challenge Chapter of the Day:  Proverbs 15

Think: Driving to a doctor's appointment this morning I asked God to reveal to me areas in my life that needed to be confessed as wrong and to fill me with His Spirit.  I also asked that He would lead me to know what to write for this devotion.  Oh, how He must have smiled as He knew what the next 30 minutes would reveal. 

I walked to the check-in desk and was told, "Bad news, your appointment is for downtown" as in Seattle, and I was in Bellevue.  At this point, I was shaken and all the stress I thought I had so carefully pushed down and denied splashed out.  I recounted the mix up in messages, wrong phone numbers given to call, and delay in scheduling.  I was introduced to a nurse who escorted me to her office to sort it all out.  As I sat down, I was flooded with conviction.  Step 1 from yesterday came to mind:  acknowledge source of anger.  I was shocked to realize it was stress and fear of the unknown results of the test I was scheduling. 

Embarrassment and shame filled my heart and I apologized.  She asked if there was anything else she could do for me I replied, "Yes, will you please forgive my bad behavior?"  She smiled, assured me I was not out of line, a mere blip compared to what she has experienced.  I was rewarded with a free parking pass, a highly valuable item in Seattle.  As I went back to the check-in desk I apologized and asked for forgiveness from the others I had offended.  A wise person once said that our circle of apology should be the same as the circle of offense.  I was rewarded with a free coffee card at Tully's.  But the best reward was the realization that I am not perfect (oh yeah, sometimes I do get pretty prideful) and yet God in His infinite mercy and grace chooses to forgive me over and over again.

Upon reflection I know that I should have executed step 2 "Delay anger".  If I had stopped, even slowed down and thought before spewing, my words and tone would have been much different.  My prayer is that God will use that situation to bring maturity to me and to perhaps speak of His witness. In my apologies I admitted that I had just heard a sermon on anger and its proper expression.   May those I offended be moved further on their spiritual journeys by seeing a real follower of Christ that is willing to admit wrong and ask for forgiveness.  After all, these are the first steps in coming to Jesus, and then so important in keeping us close to Him and in right relationship to others.

Do:  Become aware of situations that are taking you to the edge.  Acknowledge the source of the anger and then stop... reread Proverbs 15 and note all the references to the words of a wise person versus those of the foolish.

Pray:  Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for being quick to forgive.  Convict me regarding the areas of my heart that are dark and not surrendered to You.  Help me to be quick to listen and slow to speak.  Amen.

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.

Timberlake Church | 4505 236th Ave. NE • Redmond, Washington 98053 • 425-869-4400 • info@tlcf.org