Dec.11.00: Light For The Day - "Let It Out!" -- Proverb 29:11 "A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man quietly holds it back." ----------------------- I’m often amazed at the new treatments psychologists come up with. A few years ago one popular fact was, let it out! If you feel angry, let it out.  Take this foam-rubber bat and hit something as  hard as you can. If you feel hostile, say all those nasty things you’re thinking. If you ventilate your feelings, the theory goes, you’ll get rid of them.  If you hold them in, they’ll grow stronger. Nice theory. Of course, it doesn’t really work. Solomon knew that 3,000 years ago, and said so when he wrote,  "A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control (Prov.29:11).  When we practice letting any sinful or negative feeling out, what happens is that we become less able to control it next time. Rather than ventilating the emotion and getting rid of it, we find it returns more often. And, like a muscle that we exercise over and over again, those feelings we let out become stronger too. The reason is deeply rooted in the very nature of human beings. You and I are moral creatures. That means we are to stand in judgment of our own emotions. We are to choose against our emotions if those emotions are wrong.  We are to be controlled, not by what we feel, but by what we know to be right. When a person chooses to Let Out his anger or hostility, he is not getting rid of it. He is permitting it to master him. How wonderful that in Christ you and I have a better way to deal with our anger. We can choose to do what is right and confess our sinful feelings to God and ask Him to change them, and us.  When we do, God works His gradual transformation within us, until we become loving rather than angry women and men. -- Lawrence O. Richards ------------------------ There are many queer ideas about cross bearing. I recall a man once saying to me,  ‘I have a fierce temper, but I suppose that is my cross.’ ‘My friend,’ I said to him (lovingly, I hope!), ‘That is not your cross. It is your wife’s cross, but it is your sin!’ -- Alan Redpath ---------------------- -- James 1:19 (RSV) "Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God."