Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still – Psalm 4:4
Is it okay to be angry? Absolutely! In fact, king David in today’s bible verse encourages us to be angry. This sounds strange until we understand that the anger he advocates is righteous anger. Unlike unrighteous anger that is influenced by the flesh and turns to wrath if not kept in check, righteous anger is influenced and controlled by God. This type of anger does not settle for less than God’s best but provokes positive and godly change. What would happen if you got so angry about your pride, ego, fears, poverty, faltering marriage, failing health? What would happen if you got so angry at your wayward ways that you said in your heart that enough is enough? Don’t just accept things just as they are but meditate on the word of God to get key insights on how to tackle the issues in your life. One of the best decisions you can make today is to be angry at the problems with the goal of finding godly solutions.
I choose the anger that leads to positive change and blessings in my life
How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? – Psalm 4:2
How does glory turn to shame? Glory turns to shame when glory becomes the object of our love and affection instead of God. Moses warned the tribe of Israel about turning away from God after He blesses them; He warned them against thinking that their blessing came by their own power and might (Deuteronomy 8:11-17). Moses knew very well that full bellies often invite foolishness, and blessings can be the beginning of blasphemies! King Solomon unequivocally proved Moses words by turning his glory to shame: The man (king Solomon) who asked God for wisdom instead of gold and silver ended up discarding wisdom by worshipping the gold and silver (in the form of idols) that God had brought him through wisdom. We serve a God who yearns jealously for us. Our love and affection are meant for Him and nothing else. As God blesses you, beware that you do not turn your new found glory to shame.
I will always worship the creator and not His blessings
I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around – Psalm 3:6
If God is for us, then who can be against us? The bible tells a story of prophet Elisha’s servant who was afraid when he saw that the Syrian army had surrounded Elisha and him. He was surprised that Elisha remained calm until Elisha prayed for God to open his eyes to the fact that there was an army of angels surrounding the army of the enemy (2 Kings 6). The story of Elisha’s servant reveals that how and what we see dictates our mood and behavior. If we only see with physical eyes, then we are troubled and we run and hide. Yet if we see with spiritual eyes, then we are calmer and we stand our ground. When trouble comes, your question shouldn’t be who is against me, but who is for me. If the God of heaven is for you, then there is no need to be afraid regardless of the size of the trouble that comes against you. What is going on around you doesn’t matter, what matters is who is in your corner. What trouble is too difficult for God? What issue is He unable to solve? With God in your corner, today’s troubles are simply opportunities to testify of the goodness of God tomorrow.
It does not matter who is against me so long as God is for me
LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me! – Psalm 3:1
Does your resolve to follow God mean you won’t experience trouble? No! The bible makes this clear very early on through the story of Cain and Abel. Cain rose up against Abel because Abel followed God and pleased Him. Cain was jealous that God was pleased with Abel and blessed Him and so he decided to strike him down. Abel did not go looking for trouble, but trouble found him! As God blesses you, you too will become a target of people who are envious, jealous, angry, or otherwise hate you for no other reason except that you are the object of God’s blessings. Jesus mentions that we will experience trials and tribulations; He does not say that we may…yet He says that we should be of good cheer because He has overcome the world (John 16:33). Therefore, be sure to seek help from the One who has overcome when trouble comes. This is what king David did when he encountered persecution. He cried out to God (Psalm 3:4) and remembered that salvation belongs to God (Psalm 3:8). Though trouble will come, it does not have to overcome you.
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling – Psalm 2:11
What does it mean to fear? To fear does not mean to be afraid. Rather, it means to be in awe and to respect; it is described as gazing intently or paying very close attention. Therefore, to serve the Lord with fear means that we look to Him and pay close attention to His instructions and desires. When we serve the Lord with fear, we find that we end up rejoicing with trembling. We do not tremble because we are afraid, but we tremble because we are stunned by how good He is to us; we are shaken at the realization of how underserving we are of His goodness. An example of this type of joyful trembling is what happened when Peter and his fellow fishermen went fishing with Jesus. He was stunned and rejoiced greatly at the great catch but also fell down on his knees in recognition that he was not deserving of the Lords abundant goodness towards him. Do you want to tremble at God’s goodness towards you this year? If so, choose to serve Him with fear.
I won’t serve God haphazardly but with great care and attention
Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession – Psalm 2:8
Do you know that God wants you to ask Him for things that seem too big and impossible for you? Your refusal to ask is not a sign of humility, it is a sign of lack of awareness of your position in Christ or lack of awareness of God’s great desire for you! The bible says that we don’t have because we don’t ask (James 4:2). If we don’t receive something from God, it shouldn’t be because we haven’t asked but rather it should be because we have asked amiss. Don’t short-circuit God’s blessing in your life but let God decide how gracious He wants to be to you. God the Father said to His Son that if He asked, then He would give Him the nations and the ends of the earth. We are sons and daughters of God through the sacrifice of Jesus. What does He have in His heart for us that we have yet to receive because we haven’t asked?
I will not be afraid to ask God for the things I truly desire
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night – Psalm 1:2
Want to have a great year? Your secret weapon is meditation! The picture of meditation the bible gives us is one of chewing the cud. The Cambridge dictionary explains that it means to think slowly and carefully about something. This year don’t just rush through the bible for the sake of saying you have done your daily reading. Take your time to contemplate, ruminate, and investigate the word of God. Make sure that you digest the word of God fully and get the most out of your reading. When you do, you will find yourself becoming spiritually healthier and that the word speaks to you in new ways that speaks to your life. As the Psalmist says, you will be like a tree planted by the river of water that brings forth fruit in its season whose leaf does not wither, and whatever you do will prosper (Psalm 1:3).
I won’t treat the word of God like fast food but like fine dining
If we read Genesis carefully, we see that the earth already existed before the first ‘day’ of creation. The earth existed in a state that was void and without form (Genesis 1:2). The word ‘day’ is not mentioned until God said, ‘let there be light’. [The bible tells us that the light is what God called ‘Day’].
So, what is light? Light in the Hebrew simply means knowledge or illumination. Conversely, the word for darkness, which God called ‘night’ in English means ignorance. Hence, day means knowledge and night means ignorance.
Thus, what God is trying to tell us in Genesis is that knowledge is the pre-requisite to going from chaos to order. Moreover, without the presence of knowledge, ignorance rules; and where ignorance rules, things are surely to be empty and void. [So, let’s not be ignorant…it is not bliss but blightful].
Now consider this: The sun and the moon did not make an appearance in the story of creation until the 4th day (see Genesis 1: 14-19). Hence, what we consider the 24-hour day did not even exist until the 4th ‘day’ of creation. This is clear, since the 24-hour day is ruled by the rising and going down of the sun. Furthermore, the bible itself states that the heavenly bodies were given for days and years (Gen 1:14). Since the concept of our measure of time did not show up until the 4th ‘day’, it is clear that the bible was not referring to our measure of time at least in the first 3 ‘days’ of creation.
When Moses writes about the ‘day’ in Genesis 1, he is not referring to the 24-hour day as we know it, he is taking about a period in which the knowledge of God was in operation to turn the earth from a choatic mess into an oasis fit for mankind.
Consider this as well: When God is active on the earth, it is called day. And when he is not actively working, it is considered night. Consider the words of Jesus when He said: I must work… while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work(John 9:4). Again, the bible calls the time Jesus is meant to return to be active on the earth as the Day of the Lord (anyway I digress…so let’s get back on point). [I can write more about this if enough people are interested].
With regards to creation, how long each ‘day’ or period of creation lasted in terms of our 24-hour day is up in the air. This is indeed because time can be quite relative (especially in the eyes of God and man). What we do know for sure is that it was not six 24-hour days. If we engage science, it is clear that the earth has been around for a long time (something corroborated by the bible in the book of Genesis when we realize that earth existed before the first day).
The fifth word in the English version of the bible is the word “created”. If you do a deep dive into meaning of the word in the Hebrew, it gives a treasure trove about creation which I will discuss below.
The word created has many words associated with that can be joined together to form three sentences as follows: The first is to ‘signal creation‘. The second is to ‘miraculously dispatch‘. The third is a ‘token of what is to be shaped or molded‘
Without going into exhaustive detail (I will if enough people ask), it is God the Father that signaled for creation to begin. It is God the Son that miraculously dispatched the Holy Spirit. It is God the Holy Spirit who shaped the universe. Hence, we see that the first time the concept of the Trinity shows up is in the very first sentence of the bible.
Now, the final sentence is especially important. A token is a representation, a part, or skeleton. When we plug this third sentence into the words, In the beginning God created, we get the following: In the beginning, God (the Holy Spirit) made a token of that which is to be shaped.
This helps us to understand that when the Holy Spirit started the process of creation, neither the earth nor the heavens were made perfectly. It was simply an outline that was made. This should not be shocking to anyone as the bible itself says ‘the earth was without form and void’ (Genesis 1:2).
With this understanding, we no longer have to go with the thesis that the earth was without form and void (Genesis 1:2) only because the perfect earth God had previously made (Genesis 1:1) was destroyed (there is no evidence of this in the bible). We don’t have to believe that the earth was being re-made and that this is the 2nd iteration of the creation of man.
We can simply admit creation was a process. God speaking things into existence does not mean those things happen in a split second. Speaking things into existence simply means that the irreversible process was simply set into motion.
In reality, we know this in our hearts. If everything was instantaneous, then why did creation take 6 ‘days’?
Spoiler alert: The days here does not mean the 24-hour day. You will have to stay tuned for another blog for me to explain.
How would you feel if you did not get a real raise in 46 years? Well, this is exactly the situation the American Middle Class found themselves in between 1973 and 2019! Don’t believe me, just take a look at the chart below. Yep, it shows that real wages in 1973 and 2019 were exactly the same at $23.24.
The blue line is the actual pay that people take home once you adjust for inflation. You’d never know this by looking at your paycheck though. Most people would simply concentrate on the orange line, which is what they see on their paycheck and think they are making more money per year. Inflation takes into account that things get more expensive as time goes by (another way to think about it is that your money is worth less in the future).
Real wage is just the nominal earnings (what you see on your paycheck) adjusted for inflation. What does this mean? It means that if inflation is 3% per year, then just to earn the same amount as the previous year, you need to get at least a 3% raise. Otherwise, you are actually earning less in real terms.
What’s the first reason people are pissed? It is because they haven’t gotten a real raise in their life!
To make matters worse, productive in the same time period (1973 – 2019) has gone up by 62%. In other words, workers are getting more stuff done (either through sheer effort or by leveraging the latest technology) but they are not seeing the benefits in their pay. What do you call it if you are working harder and harder, producing more and more, but you don’t see any benefits at all. Some call it unfair…other people might call it slavery by another name!
What’s the second reason people are pissed? It is because they have actually earned a raise but not given!
Good and honest hardworking Americans have been slaving away at their work only to make the executives at their companies richer and richer. How much richer? Well in 1979, the average CEO made 35 times more money that the average worker. That has now ballooned up to more 275 times the average worker with estimates to date putting it closer to ~300 – 500 times.
What’s the third reason people are pissed? It is because all their hard work is only lining the pockets of people of a few!
While the Middle Class did not understand this, what they began to see is that they just couldn’t afford things no matter how hard they worked (this is because rising real prices were cutting into their stagnant wages). The issues facing the Middle Class has gotten so bad that even smokescreen & mirrors that usually cloud the wage issue such as: (1) blaming the poor for taking away their benefits (2) Laziness (3) Undocumented immigrants (lowering wages) (4) Politics (5) The people at the top are just too smart and deserve it (5) Fear of losing your job (6) Add you own…are no longer working.
What’s the fourth reason people are pissed? The people realize they’ve been lied to!
People in the UAW are beginning to say: Wait a minute! If these guys are able to offer a 20% raise across the board, doesn’t that mean that they have been holding back on my pay for a few years now? How did the money magically appear?
More and more people in the Middle Class are beginning to say: Wait a minute! Something is wrong here! I am making 6-figures and still need to penny pinch. I can’t afford what my parents used to comfortably afford, and I can’t seem to get out of the financial hole!
Why is this happening now? Perhaps it’s because the folks at the top got too greedy. Shafting the smaller poor population is one thing, but shafting the huge middle class is quite another (If the middle class feels shafted, then America feels shafted). Why did the people at the top get too greedy? Perhaps it’s because Wall Street continues to demand more and more of companies in this insatiable drive for increasing profits. Are profits bad! Heavens no! But profits that are not fairly distributed is bad for the society as it creates a class system that leads to social unrest and unraveling.
What can fix this? Just pay people fairly. It has taken the American Middle Class almost 50 years to see what wrong (a testament to resilience of the American people). Let’s not explain these concerns away with some political ideology. Let’s not take another 50 years to solve the problem. The society would have torn itself to shreds and the American dream would have become a nightmare!
I choose the anger that leads to positive change and blessings in my life
SuperChamp 