|
|
Knights of God. Anger and Unforgiveness I |
|
||||||
 |
Matthew 6:9-15 ¶ After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, (trespasses and sins), as we forgive our debtors, (those who have trespassed and sinned against us). 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.One of the most tragic mistakes that one can make is to not forgive the sins and trespasses that have been committed against them by others. While God does not force anyone to forgive others, he does say that if you do not choose to forgive others, that he will not forgive you. Is this a salvation issue? Probably. The best advice that we can give you is to not take the chance. Many believe that those who do not forgive others will not be saved. Many have unforgiveness hidden in their hearts so that they do not even recognize that it is there. So we are going to learn about anger and how to recognize it, and then determine how to repent of it in the way that the LORD prescribes. May GOD give us ears to hear and eyes to see. This is a true story about a woman who refused to forgive others throughout most of her life. She felt the satisfaction of getting even with the objects of her anger by not forgiving them. It came to pass, that one day she died from a heart attack, and the Lord appeared to her, and told her that she needed to forgive others, and that he was sending her back so she could do this. After returning from the dead, she failed to obey the LORD until several years later when she was dying of cancer. Just a few days before she died she finally obeyed the Lord and forgave all. She was so excited as she said it was like a huge weight had been lifted off her, and that if she had of known how good it would feel to forgive others, she would have done it a long time ago. She died shortly thereafter. She was very fortunate to get a second chance, but wished that she could have forgiven others much sooner. If we never got angry, we would never need to forgive anyone. Anger is the cause of all unforgiveness, and if one fails to deal with anger, the anger will become a root of bitterness which will continue to grow, occupying a larger and more significant part of the unforgiver's life as time goes by. According to GOD's word such bitterness may cause many to be defiled. (Hebrews 12:15)Our creator gives these commands regarding anger: "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath (anger)." (Ephesians 4:26-27) So from this scripture we can learn several things: 1). That anger is not a sin in itself: That we can be angry and not sin, and 2). That we need to deal with our anger before the end of each day.During the times of our anger we are the most vulnerable and likely to sin. So when we get angry, we need to be very careful of what we say and do. Sin does not always need to accompany anger. When GOD said, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath", (Ephesians 4:26-27) he was saying that you need to forgive everybody for any and all offenses before you go to sleep. When we go to sleep, the sleep seems to have a way of embedding anger into our hearts. Perhaps anger becomes sin only if we fail to deal with it in the time frame that GOD has commanded us to do it in. Anger that we do not deal with today will be there when we wake up in the morning, and if we let it accumulate it will serve as the soil wherein will grow the root of bitterness in our lives. GOD warns us about this in (Hebrews 12:15)People sometimes do terrible things to one another: It is easy to understand why some people are angry at others who have sinned or committed serious offenses against them. Sometimes people who do not forgive others feel that they have a right to be angry. Some think that they are justified in their unforgiveness because of the greatness of the sins against them. But make no mistake, if you fail to forgive others, know that GOD will not forgive you. You can depend on this, for Jesus said that it would be easier for all heaven and earth to pass away, than for even the smallest detail of anything that God has said to fail to come to pass. (Matt 5:17-18)On the other hand, you have God's promise that if you forgive others, that GOD will forgive you. But if you fail to forgive others, you can be sure that God, who always keeps his Word, will not forgive you. What a terrible tragedy that one would first suffer whatever sin, crime, or trespass that someone committed against them, and then go through the pain, suffering, and separation from GOD that unforgiveness will cause, and then in the end lose their soul. What a terrible price to pay. In the next section we are going to discuss how that GOD wants us to love the offending party, and the effect that our unforgiveness can have on the offending person's life. Click on Right Arrow to continue.
|
|
