By John Stallings
Did you know there are some “respectable sins?” These are sins that we don’t take very seriously. Irritability is one of those sins.
Irritability is-- a strong sense of annoyance or exasperation or impatience over, too often, the slightest little provocation. - An irritable person is an impatient person. We all can be irritable at times but an irritable person is irritable most of the time.
An irritable person is no fun to be with because you have to walk on eggshells for fear of setting them off. But if the irritable person is in your family or your work place, you have no choice but to coexist with them.
Ask yourself this:
Are you upset with someone or with some circumstance a lot of the time? If the answer is yes then you’re most likely an irritable person. It’s rather simple; 1 Peter 4:8 says—Love covers a multitude of sins. If that be true & we know it is, how much more should it cover a multitude of acts that irritate? Proverbs 19:11 says,--its one’s glory to overlook an offense.
If we’re irritable, it’s probably something that we indulge in at home because we can get away with it. If we tried it at church or at work there would be repercussions that we don’t want so we restrain ourselves. At home we let loose, wanting everyone around us to conform to our expectations. Let’s be clear; society sets boundaries with respect to irritability so we live within the boundaries. The reason we might act differently at home is “because we can.”
Let’s go a little deeper. As parents we can be irritable when our kids are slow in responding to our training. I’ve seen & heard good Christian parents get so irritated with their children they talk to them like they were heathens. “How many times do I have to tell you to clean your room?” Or, “When are you gonna stop playing with your food?” When you tell your kids to do something over & over its easy to become irritable when they don’t seem to be learning the lessons you want them to. The real problem here is that when we become impatient & irritable, we have outbursts that don’t teach our kids anything—they only humiliate them & teach them just the opposite of what we want them to learn.
How are you when you’re in your car driving to work, especially when you get behind a “sit low-drive slow” driver? How are you when you’re waiting in line at the bank or the store? How do you deal with it when you’re in line at the post office to buy a few stamps & the lady in front of you is mailing twenty packages to Timbuktu? Friend, though it may sound funny, its not, & you & I need to acknowledge & repent of our impatience & irritability as the sin that it is.
In Paul’s love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, when he starts to describe love he could have started several different ways, but he starts off by telling us first & foremost that love is patient. Think about that the next time someone annoys you. There is no doubt about it in Paul’s mind; the attitude of patience is one we should cultivate & the attitude of irritability is one we should stamp out of our lives. Irritability may be acceptable to us- but it’s not acceptable to God.
I make an effort to be as open & candid as possible about my personal faults, or should I say, as candid as is prudent without giving my readers “information overload.”
I’ve always been a laid back kind of guy but in the spirit of soul- cleansing, I must say as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more irritable. A case in point happened last month. I was expecting a royalty check from California & it was late. I called to check it out & was told “The checks in the mail.” Each day the money didn’t come I grew a little more annoyed & irritated. It wasn’t as if we didn’t have food on the table or were in any danger of that happening, it was “just the principle of the thing.”
Cutting to the chase, the money finally came but it was almost a month late. I don’t know how many calls I made to the West Coast or how many emails I sent but let me tell you- my “righteous indignation” was stirred up.
Juda has got to be one of the calmest people on the planet & she handles delay & disappointment much better than I do. The one exception being when the lawn-guy let’s the grass get too high before he cuts it.
Isn’t it interesting that we all have our thresholds for frustration & getting a little panicky?
THE ANOINTING OF GOD’S SPIRIT CAN BREAK THE YOKE OF IRRITABILITY.
In the 23rd Psalm, in the 5th verse, we’re told, The Lord, our good shepherd-- anoints our head with oil.
If you’ve ever been around live stock, you know that certain things can irritate them. Bugs; flies, gnats & mosquitoes can so aggravate a cow or a sheep that they’ll deliberately run into a tree or wall & injure, even kill themselves to get relief.
Fortunately the shepherd has a remedy for annoying insects. He pours an oil-like substance on the head of the animal & the fragrance keeps the insects away. The oil is a repellent that removes the aggravation, restlessness & irritability.
Animals can get rather testy & irritable when mating enters the equation. Sheep are calm & placid, even passive most of the time. But in mating season, the Rams strut around the pasture flexing their necks to make them swell trying to gain the attention of the prettiest ewe in the flock. When he catches a ewe’s eye he tosses his head back & says, “I want ewe, babe.” About that time the ewe’s boyfriend meanders over & tells her to go some place safe because a fight’s about the break out. Then some old-fashioned head-butting takes place.
The shepherd has just the thing to handle this situation. He pours oil on the Ram’s head so that when they butt heads, rather than crashing full force into each other, the greasy substance causes the Rams to glance off each other. This makes the Rams feel stupid but it dissipates the blows to their heads causing little physical damage.
Often sheep will be cut by thorns or sharp rocks as they graze. The shepherd will regularly inspect his sheep searching for cuts & abrasions. He must prevent the wound from getting infected. A little bit of linseed oil mixed with sulphur rubbed on the sheep’s wound heals them. In many sheep-rearing countries, the entire flock is paraded through a ‘sheep-dip” to take care of the problem.
Just as the sheep have many irritants, there are many things in our lives that get on our last nerve. Maybe it’s another person who ruins our peaceful existence. It may be some other distraction that drives us up the wall. Did you notice it wasn’t large things like Lions that gave the sheep the most misery? Likewise with us; it isn’t the gigantic things that get to us but rather the day-by-day swarms of frustrations & disappointments which slowly wear us down & break our spirit.
Because of the way the economy is these days; there are the problems of the stock market, house devaluations, & food prices all of which can get under our skin. For me it’s the shredding of the Constitution that is ever increasingly becoming a problem.
God through His Holy Spirit can anoint us so that we are able to handle these persistent pests that plague us.
Also, the sheep get irritated with one another. Many of our irritations & problems stem from the difficulties we have in relationships. Your boss didn’t give you a raise. Your husband didn’t notice your new dress. You were criticized unfairly. Your neighbor’s yard is a mess & he doesn’t seem to care. Your ex-spouse delights in trying to make your life miserable. Before we know it, we can get our “back up” & start head-butting people.
Like sheep, when we’re being pestered, we don’t sleep well; we don’t eat well; & we might even hit our head against a tree a few times. I’ve been a follower of news for a long time & I can’t remember a day when so many folk were snapping & committing multiple murders. Again, a lot of this stems from the unstable environment we currently live in.
MOSES
Moses is one of the most shining examples in the Bible of the toll an irritable & fractious spirit can take on an individual. Moses struggled with his temper throughout his life.
At the age of forty when he should have been a mature man, his temper got the best of him when he saw an Egyptian beating up on a Hebrew. Moses killed the Egyptian which put his picture in all the Egyptian post-offices & he had to flee & spend the next 40 years learning patience in the back side of the desert.
Moses wasn’t an ignoramus either, because Acts 7:22 says he was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians.
Sad to say this isn’t the last time we see his temper on display. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments & saw the people had gone back to idol worship, he blew his cool & threw the two tablets down at the foot of the mountain & broke them. But this wasn’t smart- because the tablets were written by the hand of God.
A QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF
Moses had to go back to the mountain & this time he had the arduous task of putting the Commandments down himself. A good question for you & me to ask ourselves is-what are we going to have to do over because we allowed anger & frustration to get the better of us?
The final act that got Moses in trouble with God was when the people were murmuring & wishing they were dead at Kadesh. God instructed Moses to go to a rock & speak to it & water would come out for the people. Did Moses obey God? Nope! Moses really got sassy with the people on this occasion. He was so furious & stressed out that his shoulders were up around his ears & instead of speaking to the rock; he struck it twice with his rod.
Water came out so abundantly that the people & all their animals were able to slake their thirst. But this was one temper tantrum God wasn’t going to overlook. God told Moses that because he didn’t hallow Him before the people, he wouldn’t be allowed to lead them into the Promised Land.
ONE OF THE SWEETEST OF GOD’S PROMISES
One of the most precious verses in the Bible is;
Did you know there are some “respectable sins?” These are sins that we don’t take very seriously. Irritability is one of those sins.
Irritability is-- a strong sense of annoyance or exasperation or impatience over, too often, the slightest little provocation. - An irritable person is an impatient person. We all can be irritable at times but an irritable person is irritable most of the time.
An irritable person is no fun to be with because you have to walk on eggshells for fear of setting them off. But if the irritable person is in your family or your work place, you have no choice but to coexist with them.
Ask yourself this:
Are you upset with someone or with some circumstance a lot of the time? If the answer is yes then you’re most likely an irritable person. It’s rather simple; 1 Peter 4:8 says—Love covers a multitude of sins. If that be true & we know it is, how much more should it cover a multitude of acts that irritate? Proverbs 19:11 says,--its one’s glory to overlook an offense.
If we’re irritable, it’s probably something that we indulge in at home because we can get away with it. If we tried it at church or at work there would be repercussions that we don’t want so we restrain ourselves. At home we let loose, wanting everyone around us to conform to our expectations. Let’s be clear; society sets boundaries with respect to irritability so we live within the boundaries. The reason we might act differently at home is “because we can.”
Let’s go a little deeper. As parents we can be irritable when our kids are slow in responding to our training. I’ve seen & heard good Christian parents get so irritated with their children they talk to them like they were heathens. “How many times do I have to tell you to clean your room?” Or, “When are you gonna stop playing with your food?” When you tell your kids to do something over & over its easy to become irritable when they don’t seem to be learning the lessons you want them to. The real problem here is that when we become impatient & irritable, we have outbursts that don’t teach our kids anything—they only humiliate them & teach them just the opposite of what we want them to learn.
How are you when you’re in your car driving to work, especially when you get behind a “sit low-drive slow” driver? How are you when you’re waiting in line at the bank or the store? How do you deal with it when you’re in line at the post office to buy a few stamps & the lady in front of you is mailing twenty packages to Timbuktu? Friend, though it may sound funny, its not, & you & I need to acknowledge & repent of our impatience & irritability as the sin that it is.
In Paul’s love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, when he starts to describe love he could have started several different ways, but he starts off by telling us first & foremost that love is patient. Think about that the next time someone annoys you. There is no doubt about it in Paul’s mind; the attitude of patience is one we should cultivate & the attitude of irritability is one we should stamp out of our lives. Irritability may be acceptable to us- but it’s not acceptable to God.
I make an effort to be as open & candid as possible about my personal faults, or should I say, as candid as is prudent without giving my readers “information overload.”
I’ve always been a laid back kind of guy but in the spirit of soul- cleansing, I must say as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more irritable. A case in point happened last month. I was expecting a royalty check from California & it was late. I called to check it out & was told “The checks in the mail.” Each day the money didn’t come I grew a little more annoyed & irritated. It wasn’t as if we didn’t have food on the table or were in any danger of that happening, it was “just the principle of the thing.”
Cutting to the chase, the money finally came but it was almost a month late. I don’t know how many calls I made to the West Coast or how many emails I sent but let me tell you- my “righteous indignation” was stirred up.
Juda has got to be one of the calmest people on the planet & she handles delay & disappointment much better than I do. The one exception being when the lawn-guy let’s the grass get too high before he cuts it.
Isn’t it interesting that we all have our thresholds for frustration & getting a little panicky?
THE ANOINTING OF GOD’S SPIRIT CAN BREAK THE YOKE OF IRRITABILITY.
In the 23rd Psalm, in the 5th verse, we’re told, The Lord, our good shepherd-- anoints our head with oil.
If you’ve ever been around live stock, you know that certain things can irritate them. Bugs; flies, gnats & mosquitoes can so aggravate a cow or a sheep that they’ll deliberately run into a tree or wall & injure, even kill themselves to get relief.
Fortunately the shepherd has a remedy for annoying insects. He pours an oil-like substance on the head of the animal & the fragrance keeps the insects away. The oil is a repellent that removes the aggravation, restlessness & irritability.
Animals can get rather testy & irritable when mating enters the equation. Sheep are calm & placid, even passive most of the time. But in mating season, the Rams strut around the pasture flexing their necks to make them swell trying to gain the attention of the prettiest ewe in the flock. When he catches a ewe’s eye he tosses his head back & says, “I want ewe, babe.” About that time the ewe’s boyfriend meanders over & tells her to go some place safe because a fight’s about the break out. Then some old-fashioned head-butting takes place.
The shepherd has just the thing to handle this situation. He pours oil on the Ram’s head so that when they butt heads, rather than crashing full force into each other, the greasy substance causes the Rams to glance off each other. This makes the Rams feel stupid but it dissipates the blows to their heads causing little physical damage.
Often sheep will be cut by thorns or sharp rocks as they graze. The shepherd will regularly inspect his sheep searching for cuts & abrasions. He must prevent the wound from getting infected. A little bit of linseed oil mixed with sulphur rubbed on the sheep’s wound heals them. In many sheep-rearing countries, the entire flock is paraded through a ‘sheep-dip” to take care of the problem.
Just as the sheep have many irritants, there are many things in our lives that get on our last nerve. Maybe it’s another person who ruins our peaceful existence. It may be some other distraction that drives us up the wall. Did you notice it wasn’t large things like Lions that gave the sheep the most misery? Likewise with us; it isn’t the gigantic things that get to us but rather the day-by-day swarms of frustrations & disappointments which slowly wear us down & break our spirit.
Because of the way the economy is these days; there are the problems of the stock market, house devaluations, & food prices all of which can get under our skin. For me it’s the shredding of the Constitution that is ever increasingly becoming a problem.
God through His Holy Spirit can anoint us so that we are able to handle these persistent pests that plague us.
Also, the sheep get irritated with one another. Many of our irritations & problems stem from the difficulties we have in relationships. Your boss didn’t give you a raise. Your husband didn’t notice your new dress. You were criticized unfairly. Your neighbor’s yard is a mess & he doesn’t seem to care. Your ex-spouse delights in trying to make your life miserable. Before we know it, we can get our “back up” & start head-butting people.
Like sheep, when we’re being pestered, we don’t sleep well; we don’t eat well; & we might even hit our head against a tree a few times. I’ve been a follower of news for a long time & I can’t remember a day when so many folk were snapping & committing multiple murders. Again, a lot of this stems from the unstable environment we currently live in.
MOSES
Moses is one of the most shining examples in the Bible of the toll an irritable & fractious spirit can take on an individual. Moses struggled with his temper throughout his life.
At the age of forty when he should have been a mature man, his temper got the best of him when he saw an Egyptian beating up on a Hebrew. Moses killed the Egyptian which put his picture in all the Egyptian post-offices & he had to flee & spend the next 40 years learning patience in the back side of the desert.
Moses wasn’t an ignoramus either, because Acts 7:22 says he was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians.
Sad to say this isn’t the last time we see his temper on display. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments & saw the people had gone back to idol worship, he blew his cool & threw the two tablets down at the foot of the mountain & broke them. But this wasn’t smart- because the tablets were written by the hand of God.
A QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF
Moses had to go back to the mountain & this time he had the arduous task of putting the Commandments down himself. A good question for you & me to ask ourselves is-what are we going to have to do over because we allowed anger & frustration to get the better of us?
The final act that got Moses in trouble with God was when the people were murmuring & wishing they were dead at Kadesh. God instructed Moses to go to a rock & speak to it & water would come out for the people. Did Moses obey God? Nope! Moses really got sassy with the people on this occasion. He was so furious & stressed out that his shoulders were up around his ears & instead of speaking to the rock; he struck it twice with his rod.
Water came out so abundantly that the people & all their animals were able to slake their thirst. But this was one temper tantrum God wasn’t going to overlook. God told Moses that because he didn’t hallow Him before the people, he wouldn’t be allowed to lead them into the Promised Land.
ONE OF THE SWEETEST OF GOD’S PROMISES
One of the most precious verses in the Bible is;
Great peace have they which love thy law & nothing shall offend them. Ps.119:165
In a way it seems strange to promise something as valuable as peace to someone who-“Loves God’s law.”
Let me illustrate it this way; If I were to go down & buy my wife a Betty Crocker cookbook, & she took it & carried it everywhere she went & talked about nothing else but that cookbook, I’d worry about her. If every time I looked around I saw her lovingly thumbing through the book of recipes & making notes, I’d think it a little strange.
When I asked her about the gift I’d given her, if her eyes pooled with tears & she’d say, “I love this cookbook. I love the way the pages feel. I even love how the type fits on the pages. Oh, how I love this book. It’s hard to keep from crying every time I pick up this wonderful cookbook. You may have noticed that I read it six or seven times a day but I just can’t help it.” I think you’d agree if that happen, it would be beyond strange.
But let’s make one small change & say the recipe book is her grandmother’s old cookbook. Each recipe is hand written by her & the pages are worn & stained from the cooking she did so many years ago. As Juda turned the pages she could remember the recipes & how scrumptious they were. If that were the case, knowing how much Juda’s grandmother meant to her, I wouldn’t think it at all strange for her to be sentimental about the old book. To her its more than words on a page, it’s a reminder of family relationships & a precious symbol that spans several generations.
You & I don’t love God’s law because its ink on paper, we love it because of who wrote it & our relationship to Him.
THE PROMISE—NOTHING SHALL OFFEND THEM!
God has promised if we love His Word, if we meditate on it, nothing will upset our applecart. Nothing will destroy our peace. Nothing will irritate us. Nothing will offend us or “get under our skin.” I submit to you friend that’s a promise that’s almost too good to be true. Nothing will get us all bent out of shape & cause us to be edgy, angry or frustrated.
I’ll be very frank with you; when I read this verse I almost unconsciously want to downgrade it like; --Not very many things will offend—or—most things won’t bother us but a few things can still get us ticked off. That of course is the flesh not wanting to take God’s Word at face value, wanting to make excuses for the tendency we all have for our wrong attitudes.
This verse doesn’t promise us that we’ll never have things to happen that will hurt & disappoint us. It doesn’t promise that we’ll never have to deal with irregular people & be pushed to the breaking point. It doesn’t promise that we’ll never spend time in the “spiritual burn unit.”
There will still be stumbling blocks for us to overcome because Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
But if you love God’s Law, [the Bible] you won’t be up-ended by anything this life can hand you. When the stumbling blocks come, you may step over them, you may walk around them or God will give you the grace to walk through them. God can emotionally make you “Vice president of the “happy to be here” club.
In any case, you won’t stumble, you won’t fall & you won’t be destroyed by the changing circumstances of life.
God will give you poise & He’ll give you peace.
How wonderful is the promise;
Great peace have they which love thy law & nothing shall offend them.
Blessings,
John
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