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How to Deal with Anger, August 17
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth
his spirit than he that taketh a city.
Proverbs 16:32
.
How Satan exults when he is enabled to set the soul into a white heat
of anger! A glance, a gesture, an intonation, may be seized upon and
used, as the arrow of Satan, to wound and poison the heart that is open to
receive it.
When one once gives place to an angry spirit he is just as much
intoxicated as the man who has put the glass to his lips.
Christ treats anger as murder.... Passionate words are a savor of death
unto death. He who utters them is not cooperating with God to save his
fellow man. In heaven this wicked railing is placed in the same list as
common swearing. While hatred is cherished in the soul there is not one
iota of the love of God there.
When you feel an angry spirit arising, take firm hold of Jesus Christ
by faith. Utter no word. Danger lies in the utterance of a single word
when you are angry, for a volley of passionate utterances will follow....
The man who gives way to folly in speaking passionate words, bears false
witness; for he is never just. He exaggerates every defect he thinks he
sees; he is too blind and unreasonable to be convinced of his madness. He
transgresses the commandments of God, and his imagination is perverted
by the inspiration of Satan. He knows not what he is doing. Blind and
deaf, he permits Satan to take the helm and guide him wherever he pleases.
The door is then thrown open to malice, to envy, and to evil surmisings,
and the poor victim is borne helplessly on.... But there is hope while the
hours of probation linger, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ....
“Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and
blameless.”
2 Peter 3:14
. This is the standard for which every Christian
must strive, not in his own natural ability, but through the grace given him
of Jesus Christ. Let us wrestle for the mastery over every sin, and be able
to check every impatient, fretful expression.
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