Hi Lighthouse Sisters!
This week we have a devotion written by Euricia Foster. Euricia is a voice from our “Jeremiah Generation” – young leaders God has raised up in the church. Their voice is much needed, and is honest and REAL! Read on, be blessed. Marcy
Provoked to Wrath – Euricia Foster
Ephesians 6:4 and Colossians 3:21
And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath or anger, lest they be discouraged (Col 3:21)… but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4).”
As a Child of God one thing I am sure of : I am not perfect and I am my Father in Heaven’s daughter.
We all have something we struggle with. I am not an open book and I tend to keep to myself. This is due to my temper. Yes ladies, I have a temper and it rages when I am provoked. I tend to keep away from things and people that provoke me. My fear of being provoke to wrath discourages me from getting close to people. Being provoked by someone that is close to me tends to bring out the worst in me. So, I avoid these relationships all together.
This is not how God intended life to be lived. I am an ambassador for him and as such I need to interact with people and create relationships.
Becoming a follower of Jesus does not mean that our only expressed emotions will be love, happiness, joy, and peace. We are still going to express sadness, anger, and all the other emotions we tend not to like.
The Lord had been provoke into anger by his children to the point where he even retaliated. The Lord told his children in Exodus 20:3 that thou shall have no other God before me. But when his people disobeyed in Deuteronomy 32:21 God says, “They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.”
The anger comes when the provoke is intentional.
Many times when the Lord was provoked intentionally it led to his anger, and that is also the case with his children. The Lord knew what happens when one is provoked and so made it known that we should not provoke one another.
We all at some point have provoked someone. We all need to practice brining people up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It is not easy but it can be done. We all need to love others the way God loves us. His love never waivers even when we do. We need to choose to always be uplifting to one another and for those times that we are unable to do so let’s try not to resort to provoking each other.
Euricia