“… the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James 1:20
James 1:20 has long been a most needed memory verse for me. I even personalize it by putting my name in the place of “man”. As of late, however, perhaps writing out the verse on another sticky note stuck in my kitchen is in order. My mouth has been popping out angry words right and left. Again.
Case in point, my man calls me on the way home from work to tells me that he’s stopping by Wal-Mart. Instead of words of excitement that he’s coming home early on a Friday, out pop angry words about why he’s got to go pick up somebody else’s stuff. Icky sticky angry words snapped in an even uglier tone.
Oh, but Girlie, the story gets better. To my outburst, my husband calmly replied, “Look, Chris. I was calling you to see if you needed me to pick you up something while I’m here at Wal-Mart.” Ouch!! Not only had I exploded in anger over something very stupid but I exploded in anger while my hubby was thinking of MY needs.
Now, since God’s word is true, I knew that out of the abundance of my angry heart, my mouth had spoken angry words. “Well this is just great, God. What do I do about all this anger in my heart? I don’t even know what I’m mad about!” I utter desperately to Jesus. I asked Jesus to show me my heart. I was fully expecting Him to answer my prayer and to reveal the root of all that anger bubbling forth from my heart. Instead, God surprised me by giving me an unusual visual aid from James 1:20 to combat my angry heart.
With my sticky note of James 1:20 stuck newly in place, I knew I needed the truth of that verse stuck in my heart as well as on my kitchen cabinet. So, I dug deeper into the word with my trusty online Strong’s concordance. And there, to my surprise, was God’s surprise for me! The Hebrew word for anger in James 1:20 is spelled orge. An immediate pictured popped into my “mother-of-a-9-year-old-boy” head of our English word OGRE. Hebrew: Orge. English: Ogre. See the resemblance?
So, the word picture for what my anger looks like to people was born. I quickly realized that the angry ogre in me was devouring the poor unsuspecting people around me just as easily as the fictitious ogre tore about the people it ate.
What about you, Friend? Do you have an angry ogre hiding inside? If so, what triggers your ogre to come out and devour the people around you? Would you join me in using James 1:20 to remind us what God says is true? Perhaps writing the verse on a sticky note could help you too. My new one reads:
“The OGRE of Christina does not produce the righteousness of God.”
Used by permission.
