Sunday, March 15, 2020

Day 1: Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic


Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic
A series of daily reflections for the people of faith
at Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland
by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor
SUNDAY 15 MARCH 2020
Anger, Change and the Coronavirus
“The Emotions of Lent: Anger”

This was to have been our focus for the sermon this morning, but changes have occurred that are out of our hands – put another way, we have lost control of some areas of our lives.

The premise in the outline for today states that our “Anger is in direct  proportion to our inability to be in control, a dynamic that arises out of our brokenness.”

Read Genesis 4:1-16. Cain was angry that God didn’t accept his offering, and God confronted him with it. But instead of letting God help him with his anger he went out and, in a fit of rage, killed his brother Abel.

It is unwise to think we can eradicate anger from our existence, for it accompanies us throughout life in some form:
1. There is the POTENTIAL for anger that is always within us.
2. There is the PRESENCE of anger which will test our will from time to time to see how we will respond;
3. and there is the PRACTICE of anger where we use anger to manipulate the people around us, an anger that harms them and us.

Learning to control anger is just that: learning to control it. But when our anger does get the best of us God’s Word gives us a resolution:“’In your anger do not sin’: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Ephesians 4:26. In other words: deal with it, seek forgive-ness, and don’t let it fester, giving the enemy a place to do a number on us.

Reflective Question: God asked Cain, “’Why are you angry?’” He asks us the same question: what makes you angry?

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 16:32:“A person who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and someone who rules their spirit is better than someone who rules a city.”

Reflective Hymn: “Cleanse Me
Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from every sin and set me free.

Reflective Prayer: Write your own

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