God’s Salvation - How Should Christians Control Their Anger? I Found the Way（Part-1）
By Su Xing
“You believe in the Lord and yet you lose your temper at the drop of a hat. Why haven’t you changed at all?” This was my husband’s rebuke to me. I used to feel such distress that I was unable to live out the Lord’s teachings, and I often implored the Lord to lead me to cast off the bonds of sin. During my search, I heard the utterances of the second coming of the Lord, and I finally found the path to resolve my anger. I’d like now to tell you all about my experiences.
I Live in Sin, Powerless to Free Myself
In my daily life, I lived constantly within a cycle of sinning and confessing. For example, one time, because my child was too fond of playing and was too sloppy with his schoolwork, I grew angry and scolded him. My husband couldn’t stand by and watch me scolding him in such a way, so he criticized me for it. I didn’t accept what he said, so we got into an argument. This kind of scene became a regular occurrence, and every time my temper cooled after an outburst, I would feel very distressed and would reproach myself, especially when I thought of the verses: “Be you holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16), and “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). The Lord is holy and yet I always lived in sin. I couldn’t stop myself from losing my temper and I couldn’t get along peacefully with other people, so how could I possibly delight the Lord?
In order to bring about some change in myself, I strengthened my spiritual devotions, I read the Bible and prayed more, I attended gatherings with more zeal, and I would actively participate in every church service, but I still couldn’t resolve the issue of my fiery temper, and so I felt lost and disheartened. I often thought: The pastor says that, once we believe in the Lord and we pray and repent, then the Lord forgives our sins and we are made anew. So how come I don’t feel as though I have a new life, but instead just constantly commit sin, my spirit becoming ever darker, and I can’t feel the Lord beside me? And so, I often prayed to the Lord in tears: “O Lord! I can never control my anger and I cannot free myself from the bonds of sin. I ask You, Lord, to guide me to cast off sin.”
I Understand the Root Cause of Sin
One day in June, I met Sister Weiwei and Brother Kevin. They were both pious Christians, and we often gathered together to fellowship on the Bible. Their fellowships were filled with light and I found them to be highly beneficial. I also told them of my pain at living in sin and being powerless to free myself from it. One time, Brother Kevin said cheerfully to me, “The Lord Jesus whom we have yearned for has returned, and on the foundation of His work in the Age of Grace, He is performing the work of judgment through words. Only by keeping up with God’s new work can we obtain the supply of the water of life.” When I heard that the Lord had returned, I felt both happy and excited. I tripped over myself to ask the brother: “You said the Lord has returned — can it be true?”
Brother Kevin said, “It is indeed true. He has returned in the last days to save us utterly from sin and to enable us to be free of this painful life of sinning and confessing. It fulfills precisely this biblical prophecy: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin to salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). As we all know, the first incarnation of God performed the work of redeeming mankind and our sins were forgiven by the Lord. What is undeniable, however, is that we still continually commit sin and that we know perfectly well what the Lord requires of us, and yet we are very rarely able to put it into practice, and we live bound by sin. And what exactly is the reason for this?”
I had always been confused about this and was never able to work it out. I really wanted to understand, and so I listened in earnest as Brother Kevin went on with his fellowship.
Then the brother sent me two passages of God’s words, “At the time Jesus’ work was the redemption of all mankind. The sins of all who believed in Him were forgiven; as long as you believed in Him, He would redeem you; if you believed in Him, you were no longer a sinner, you were relieved of your sins. This is what it meant to be saved, and to be justified by faith. Yet in those who believed, there remained that which was rebellious and opposed God, and which still had to be slowly removed. Salvation did not mean man had been completely gained by Jesus, but that man was no longer of sin, that he had been forgiven his sins: Provided you believed, you would never more be of sin.” “For all that man may have been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it can only be considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with his transgressions. However, when man, who lives in a body of flesh, has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing his corrupt satanic disposition. This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sinning and being forgiven. The majority of men sin in the day only to confess in the evening. This way, even if the sin offering is forever effective for man, it will not be able to save man from sin. Only half the work of salvation has been completed, for man still has a corrupt disposition.”
Brother Kevin gave fellowship, saying, “God’s words are very clear. The work performed by the Lord Jesus was the work of redemption, and as long as we accept the Lord Jesus as our Savior and we pray and repent to the Lord, then our sins shall be forgiven, and by our faith are we justified. We are then no longer sinful, but this does not mean that we no longer commit sin, for it is because our sinful nature still exists that we live within this cycle of sinning and confessing and are constantly unable to free ourselves from the bonds of sin. Under the domination of our satanic nature, we often reveal corrupt dispositions, such as being arrogant and conceited, selfish and contemptible, lying and cheating and being wicked and greedy, and so on. When others do things that we do not agree with, we lecture them condescendingly and we harm them, so that not one family is able to live in peace and harmony together. We scheme against each other for the sake of our own interests, we strive and struggle against each other, and friends become enemies. In order to safeguard our own prestige, we often lie and cheat. Though we may appear on the outside to expend ourselves and to give things up in our faith in God, we actually harbor no true love for God, and when sickness or adversity come our way, we can still blame God to the point of betraying Him…. The Bible says, ‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12:14). We still live often in the midst of sin, committing sins and resisting the Lord, and we are unworthy to see the face of the Lord. We therefore need the Lord to perform a further stage of salvation and purify our sinful nature.”
Hearing Kevin’s fellowship filled me with light. I thought of how I knew perfectly well what the Lord requires of us, and yet was never able to put it into practice, and about how I was always intolerant and impatient in my dealings with my husband and my son, and would often lose my temper and lecture them. As it turned out, this was all happening because my sinful nature still existed within me, so of course, no matter how much I prayed, read the Bible or tried to master myself to be able to bear my cross, I could never rid myself of the bonds and constraints of sin, and I realized that we do indeed need the Lord to perform a further stage of salvation.
To be continue…
Source from: find the shepherd.
