Cleaning Up Our Mouths (4)
Step Four: Trust God
I have found that the single greatest help in the restraining of my angry tongue from sinful outbursts has been a strong, sustained, conscious trust in the sovereignty of God.
Think about it: normally why do people curse? It's because we get angry. Why do we get angry? Because either people or circumstances do not treat us the way we want.
But who controls and governs the people in our lives or the circumstances that fill them? God. That means that when we curse in anger it is because in that moment we are not trusting or resting in the sovereign purposes of God for us in that moment. We're mad at what God has ordained. Cursing is anger expressed which is really unbelief at work.
A few years back I made a picnic table. It took hours of planning and labor and (as you would expect with me) sweat. Within a week or two of when I finished it--and I think even before we had a chance to use it more than once or twice, a storm hit. Heavy winds blew, knocking down a tree. Guess where it landed? Right on my table.
How do you think I responded? Believe it or not, I laughed. It was a good hearty, cheerful, full-bodied laugh of faith. For somehow in that moment, I was conscious of the fact that God rules over wind and trees and where trees trees land--and God must have had a reason for landing one on my handiwork.
Faith in a sovereign God made me laugh at that moment when at other times, when I have not been God-aware, I have not. Trust in a soveriegn God made me laugh at calamity; it never even crossed my mind to curse or even come close.
I wish it was always easy to keep from the angry outburst. What I have found is that the more I live in the shadow of God's throne, conscious that He reigns over every detail of life, including smashed tables, hammer-smashed thumbs, dents to the car, and the flat out crises of life, the less I get angry or succumb to anger's outbursts against God or others or things. The more I trust sovereignty, the less i even think about cursing the problems or people in my life.
I have found that the single greatest help in the restraining of my angry tongue from sinful outbursts has been a strong, sustained, conscious trust in the sovereignty of God.
Think about it: normally why do people curse? It's because we get angry. Why do we get angry? Because either people or circumstances do not treat us the way we want.
But who controls and governs the people in our lives or the circumstances that fill them? God. That means that when we curse in anger it is because in that moment we are not trusting or resting in the sovereign purposes of God for us in that moment. We're mad at what God has ordained. Cursing is anger expressed which is really unbelief at work.
A few years back I made a picnic table. It took hours of planning and labor and (as you would expect with me) sweat. Within a week or two of when I finished it--and I think even before we had a chance to use it more than once or twice, a storm hit. Heavy winds blew, knocking down a tree. Guess where it landed? Right on my table.
How do you think I responded? Believe it or not, I laughed. It was a good hearty, cheerful, full-bodied laugh of faith. For somehow in that moment, I was conscious of the fact that God rules over wind and trees and where trees trees land--and God must have had a reason for landing one on my handiwork.
Faith in a sovereign God made me laugh at that moment when at other times, when I have not been God-aware, I have not. Trust in a soveriegn God made me laugh at calamity; it never even crossed my mind to curse or even come close.
I wish it was always easy to keep from the angry outburst. What I have found is that the more I live in the shadow of God's throne, conscious that He reigns over every detail of life, including smashed tables, hammer-smashed thumbs, dents to the car, and the flat out crises of life, the less I get angry or succumb to anger's outbursts against God or others or things. The more I trust sovereignty, the less i even think about cursing the problems or people in my life.
Labels: Sanctification, speech, tongue
posted by Tim Shorey at
10:15 AM
1 Comments:
Tim, great story about the picnic table! It shows the degree to which the work of sanctification has taken hold in your life.
May God grant us all the wisdom to live life in such a way, abandoned to His sovereignty, even when His hand touches things more precious to us than a picnic table...
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