Slow to Wrath.

Jas 1:19  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 

Jas 1:20  For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 

How slow is our wrath?  Seriously, how fast do we become wrathful?

Anger or Wrath is an intense emotional response. It is an emotion that involves a strong uncomfortable and emotional response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. Anger can occur when a person feels their personal boundaries are being or going to be violated. Some have a learned tendency to react to anger through retaliation as a way of coping. (wiki)

Let me ask you this? Have you ever had any road rage? Even a little bit? Road rage truly has become an epidemic. The anger we feel when driving and encounter what we perceive as anger inducing situations causes us to react in ways we shouldn't. We yell, we swear, we drive unsafely, we let that anger fuel us and you know what? Many times things we get upset about from other drivers are innocent mistakes, unintended swerves, a hurried lane change from an instinctive reaction to get into the right lane for a turn, a total miscalculation of the time it takes to stop… there are a lot of mistakes made innocently, I know- I've made lots of them. Yet when we encounter *stupid* drivers we instantly feel we have the right to be angry, to get wrathful.  How slow are we to wrath behind the steering wheel of our cars?

There are many situations that bring wrathful feelings upon us- having to wait extra long in lines, at drive throughs of fast food places, at tardy waiters/waitresses, at slow moving people when we are in a rush (I've even gotten perturbed at my elderly dog- much to my shame- for not moving fast enough when I need to rush to do something(important somethings). It's not my dog's fault I'm in a rush and she can't comprehend I have to run to get to grandma before she falls on the floor.  We get angry in many, many situations and most of them have the root cause of us being self-centered. Did the need to get to grandma bring out my selfishness? No, not all anger is selfish but a lot of it is. We are in a rush simply because we don't want out precious time wasted in many situations.  That time we believe is being wasted could be spent in prayer, couldn't it? Instead we use it to get wrathful, to get angry and fueled by that anger allow it to rile us into doing things we shouldn't (swearing, etc)

Also, how many of us are swift to speak and slow to hear? Preferring to speak not listen? How many of us have to fight not to interrupt those talking to us because we are in such a hurry to add our point of view, our two cents to the conversation? We believe our need to speak supersedes the one talking to us because what we have to say is so incredibly important it might just take away the need for the other to speak at all.  We understand, we know things, we have opinions that matter greatly, we, we, we! 

God knows how important it is for us to be slow to speak, fast to hear and slow to anger. God knows and wants us to know and comprehend fully. If we want to work the righteousness of God, we have to pray for these words of the greatest wisdom to become a part of our lives- so ingrained in us it is natural for us to be slow to speak, swift to hear and very slow to anger.

Please, Lord, we would work Your righteousness! Live in us, let us do Your will, all through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and FOREVER!