Marks of a True Christian

She says her attitude is not always good but if she waits a minute a better one comes up. As I read a section in Charnock and another in the NT, I have to smile once again. I also have to ask God to help me think before I react.

My protests are mild. A driver cuts me off. A clerk short-changes me. Someone is rude, or ignores me. Blah, blah, blah. She is ordered to do something painful, given conflicting information, or no information, but she waits on that better attitude. I so often don’t.

Charnock talks about God being “slow to anger, and great in power” in that His power moderates His anger. He is not at the command of His passions, as many of us are, but instead  restrains His anger even when provoked to exercise it. His power over Himself is the cause of his slowness to wrath. 

In Numbers 14:13-19, Moses pleads for pardon for the people on that basis, that God will not clear the guilty, but is “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression.” I find it easy to be angry and slow to abound in love, quite the opposite. But not all of His people are like that. I am watching this one who is provoked but waits for a better attitude to come along. Anger may be powerful but as Charnock says, it is a want of a power over self that makes us do unbecoming things when provoked. A prince that can bridle his passion is a king over himself, as well as over his subjects. God is slow to anger, because He is great in power: He hath no less power over himself than over His creatures: He can sustain great injuries without an immediate and quick revenge: He hath the power of patience, as well as the power of justice.

For this reason, He can tell me to be like Him, not in the sense where He can deal with evil, but in the restraining of that desire so I may love like He loves. He speaks loudly to me, not only through the example of another, but in these words that describe what He wants from me:

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:9–21)

PRAY: Lord, Your Word and Your people are to show the world what You are like, not in Your wrath for that belongs only to You, but in Your power to be merciful, to hate evil but leave it to You to deal with those who oppose me in any way. When I think about it, the rude and unkind people are not my greatest enemy. Instead, the hardest battles are in trying to put down my own selfishness. Grant me great willingness to abhor the bad attitudes that pop up far too easily in my own life. I am my own worst enemy.