Read: Ephesians 4:25-32

Your brother has annoyed you again and so you get angry at him. Or someone at school has commented in a nasty way on your clothes and so you don’t want to talk to her again. Or maybe you wish that your sibling will get some real hard punishment for the way they left you to clean up all the toys again. These feelings of anger, wrath and malice are so common for all of us. Yet God teaches us in these verses that we have to put all of these feelings far away from us. “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Sometimes this can be so hard to do. Sometimes we actually want to be angry or annoyed at someone else because we think that they deserve it.

So, what should you do when you have these angry or malicious thoughts and feelings? You need to pray to the Lord. You need to ask the Lord to remove those feelings and help you to be loving and kind. Verse 32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” You won’t be able to do this by yourself. It’s a difficult thing to do and that’s why you need the power of the Holy Spirit to help you in this. That’s why you need to pray.

And the Lord will help you. He will, through the working of the Spirit, take away those feelings of anger and hatred. If you look at the words of King David in Psalm 4, you will see that he had many reasons to be angry at his enemies. And yet he said that he prayed to the Lord and the Lord heard him. He put his trust in God and God took his anger away, so he could sleep in peace.

When we look at all of our own sins and remember that Jesus Christ has died for them, then we will also be willing to be kind and forgiving to others.

Reflection with your child:

What should you do if you feel angry at someone else?

Source: Sermon by Rev. K. Dekker