Great Word in our Proverbs that helps us keep our triggers in check, and certainly flies in the face of today’s culture that constantly has us angry about one thing or another:
Pro 19:11 Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
Good sense or…Wisdom keeps us from getting angry, and we take it back to the Bible, what is wisdom? Wisdom is looking at the world from a biblical lens, knowing that God is sovereign, and always watching us, God has already designed everything that is going to happen in our lives and while we are here in this world, we are to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to God, that brings honor to God.
As we learned in yesterday’s Word, the fool only sees things through the me, myself and I perspective, while the wise person has empathy or is willing to understand and to listen.
With that said, something that can certainly agitate us is when we are driving and someone cuts us off in traffic. We immediately make all of these false and foolish assumptions about that person, they think that because they drive a newer car than me, they are better than me, or that person is not a smart as me, or younger and a dumber driver than me…just a ton of misconceptions pop into our minds that are built on love of our own selves and pride and further, hatred of others.
However, wisdom give us that biblical reality check, that says: maybe that other image bearer of God is having a bad day, we don’t know what it happening in the car in front of us, They could have gotten a phone call from a family member that is suddenly in the hospital, or they could be sick, we have no idea what is going on with them. That is good sense, and the empathy that comes from loving others as we love our selves, or wisdom.
The second half of today’s Proverb tells us “it is his glory to overlook an offense”. John MacArthur very aptly stated once that the closest thing we can be to Jesus is forgiving. the Bible tells us, Christ forgave us, should we not forgive others?
If we take it back to today’s hypothetical road rage scenario, maybe that person who cut us off was acting a fool? But if we look within our selves, can any of us say that we too haven’t driven badly? Is there any one of us who haven’t just not being paying attention and cut in front of someone? The answer is no, as Jesus said; let the person who never sinned throw the first stone. And what happened next? Everyone left because none of them could say they didn’t sin! That same thing is applicable to us when we are in situations that can agitate us, none of us are without sin, and chances are we all did the same thing being done to us, or worse!
So headed back to our Proverbs, A God fearing perspective keeps these things in mind, that Christ is the only One who was without sin, the rest of us are sinners in need of His Grace as we navigate this very short life that is never not full of unimportant things that can try and agitate. Christ is what is important, and what is eternal and what we should focus on, not secondary distractions that come and go.
