Rev. A. Hocking
GOD’S RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE PART 3
This month we’re looking at Gods recipe for a happy life. The first two ingredients were: Don’t worry about evildoers and Trust in the Lord. The third one may seem a little strange at first. Like the first two, it’s found in Psalm 37.
CEASE FROM ANGER AND FORSAKE WRATH. In other words, don’t get mad and lose your temper!
It is a fact that we live in such a fast moving, rush and bustle world that sometimes it all gets on top of us, and then we blow our top! We get made at our husband or wife — shout at the kids, fall out with the neighbours, or anyone else who happens to be within range — and if there’s no one else about, we’ll probably go out and kick the cat!
But did you ever stop to think about it? Losing your temper is a pretty destructive thing isn’t it? I suppose all of us have lost our temper at some time or other, and we usually finish up doing something we’re sorry about afterwards, don’t we?
I once read a story about a famous place in America called “Stone Mountain”. You may have seen pictures of it, where statues of famous men have been carved out of the hillside, hundreds of feet high. At the bottom, there is a great pile of chunks of rock, and the story goes that the sculptor who was originally hired to do the job, got into an argument with the authorities about how he was doing it. One day he got so angry that he climbed up to the half finished figures, drilled a hole in the rock, filled it with dynamite, and blew the whole thing to pieces. He could have gone down in history as the great sculptor who made that mighty monument, but instead, he is known only as the man who lost his temper and blew it to smithereens.
So God gives us this piece of good advice for those who want to live a really happy life — cease from anger and forsake wrath. Oh, I know there are some things you may think it Is quite right to be angry about — like injustice, and cruelty and some of the inhuman things we hear about happening in different places from time to time, but the Bible says, if you do get angry about something, don’t sin — keep yourself under control.
So…. Calm down. Learn to face things calmly and rationally. Try counting to ten more often, before you do something you might be sorry about afterwards, and this is where Christianity is , as I said last week, intensely practical. The Bible says, “If any man is in Christ he’s a new creature, old things have passed away and everything has become new”. So why not commit your life to Jesus Christ. And let Him take over and give you a new life? You only have to ask.
Barnabas Ministries UK 