As you pray, God will
purge you of unrighteous anger.
One result of an ongoing praying life is that
God removes unrighteous anger from my heart. God takes the chip off my
shoulder. He softens the edge. He forms his heart of compassion, in me, for my
enemies.
Remember the prayer of Jesus, when on the cross?
“Father, forgive these people who are torturing me, for they have no idea of
what they are doing.”
In praying, God frees me from the prison cell of hatred, and releases me to
love in ways I have never done before. For me this is not a theory, but an
existential reality. My wife Linda has seen the results. Because I have a
praying life, I am a better husband, father, friend, and pastor. As Christ is
more deeply formed in me, I get changed.
Most of this happens as I am praying.
In praying, I am clay on a potter's wheel. I am not the agent of my own
transformation, God is. Many times, I can feel Him shaping me.
This is praying as an act of resistance to the common, unholy structures of the
world, which demand conformation to their will. To pray is to protest against
the hate-filled standards of our culture. In praying we are transformed from
reactionaries to revolutionaries.
Henri Nouwen writes: "Entering the special solitude of prayer is a protest
against a world of manipulation, competition, rivalry, suspicion,
defensiveness, anger, hostility, mutual aggression, destruction, and war. It is
a witness to the all-embracing, all-healing power of God's love."
(Nouwen, The Road to Peace:
Writings on Peace and Justice, 22-23)
Love,
PJ
UNDERSTAND
Anger
is the emotion we feel,
when
one of our expectations has not been met.
Are
your expectations godly?
In
your anger, do not sin.
From my book 31 Letters to the Church on Praying.
