Luke 6:37 – “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;”
You drive home from work, put on the right indicator and feel relieved to turn into the gate. Suddenly from nowhere a bike cuts your car to overtake you from the right. (Feeling: annoyed)
You finish all your homework and then collect all the relevant things to make your project. Just then, the fuse blows out; no power in your house.
(Feeling: more annoyed. The neck under your collar starts to feel hot.)
You have finished all chores and head towards your bed. Bam! You tripped over something and hurt yourself while breaking your fall. ‘On’ goes the light and the living room is a complete mess. (Feeling: I have had it!)
Your head feels like a pressure cooker at bursting point ready to let out two heavy jets of steam through the ears.
But, this is how life is. This is how the world rotates and we need to overcome our feeling of annoyance. We need to learn to control our anger and not act it out else it can cause us to swear, hit out, act impulsively, in short – it can cause us to sin.
How do we not judge, not condemn, and forgive?
– Pray: prayer helps us change ourselves from the inside out and become more like Christ (slow to anger and nonjudgemental). Only through Christ and the cross can we overcome what we feel and react in our flesh. We cannot do this on our own. Only through prayer can we prepare ourselves for whatever awaits our tomorrows-temptations, shortcomings etc. “Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you”.
Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye who are heavy laden and I will give you rest”.
-Be steadfast – we ought to keep our eyes on God at all times. Then we will be able to see others through God’s eyes. We will want to follow His will using His ways. We will want to love like Him and obey.
Jesus is all gracious, slow to anger and full of mercy. As Believers, we ought to make Lord Jesus our role model and try to overcome our daily annoyances through Him.
