Irritation= Unbelief
In one of those rare moments of self-awareness I became convicted of the seriousness of one of my common practices. My “common practice” is that of getting irritated at others. It can be while I am driving the car, waiting in line at the local grocery store or any other qualifying situation. I can just get easily irritated by those around me and I have up to this point not seen it in the light that scripture puts it. Then… as it often seems to be, the Spirit brought me to the point where I see more clearly what I was doing. When I indulged in petty irritations I was embracing a mindset of unbelief. Let me explain this in more biblical terms.
· My Father in heaven determines every situation that I encounter. Ephesians 1:11
· My Father in heaven only brings into my life that which is for my good. Romans 8:28
· An irritating situation is irritating to me because I do not believe that what I am encountering is what I should be encountering.
· What I do encounter is exactly what my Father in heaven wants me to encounter. Not to embrace this encounter from a biblical point of view is to be engaged in sin.
· I am commanded to give thanks for every situation. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
· A refusal to give thanks is equivalent to saying that my Father does not know what is best for me. I am refusing to believe what the scripture says about what I am encountering.
· Therefore, irritation = UNBELIEF.
When I look at it this way it seems a whole lot more serious then I had previously thought. I am a God-lover and the thought of blatantly telling my Father in heaven that I do not believe him is something that I cannot live with, though that is exactly what I was doing in an indirect way. So…I want to encourage you to look at those irritation situations from the point of view of your Father in heaven. There are so many ways that we can drag our Lord through the dirt by our behavior. 1 Corinthians 10:31
Geoff
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Geoff,
Great reminder for me. It is funny, I just read a chapter in a Piper book that states the same thing. Maybe I should pay attention.
In case anyone wants to read more about this, check out chapter 13 of Future Grace by John Piper.
Thanks again and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Geoff~
I VERY timely blog; thanks for sharing! I have been thinking through similar points today as I’ve wrestled with irritation at work. It seems so easy to look over our sin in being irritated, and be quick to dismiss it instead of deal with it in a holy manner. It is indeed the sin of disbelief, and needs to be handled as such.
Geoff – There is something perversely comforting in being reminded of the commonality of sin; such as the sin of irritation. The temptation is slippery; just when I think I have recognized and made some headway in one place, I find (or begin to notice) myself feeling irritation elsewhere. But by the same token, there is true comfort in the promise common to all God’s children that He is faithful and will enable us to keep growing.
Geoff – you never seemed particularly irritated with us students at ASU, at least back in the day. Have you grown more curmudgeony?
Rob, I do believe that I am becoming more sensitive to how I respond to others. Philippians 1:6 is very true. HE gets all the glory. Much love, Geoff