What We All Have in Common

March 5, 2021

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. James 1:19-20 NLT

Perhaps you have noticed as we study the basic personality types that you seem to be a little bit of all of them. This is not just you confusing yourself; it is true. We all have pieces and parts of the best person a human could ever be and the worst person a human could ever be. However, as we allow God Himself to transform us through His grace, the strengths of all the personalities become more prominent in us, and the negative qualities lessen.

Jesus is our example and strength in all of it. He was FULL of grace and truth. That does not mean that He was the perfect balance between grace and truth. No…He was COMPLETE grace. COMPLETE truth. The full measure, as good as it could possibly get, in every possible area. So He is able to help every single one of us to the greatest extent. That is the first thing we have in common: Someone who completely understands us and has exactly what we need.

The second thing we have in common is the emotion of anger that has become our response to our unmet desires and needs. We can be violent, passive-aggressive, raging, or stubbornly quiet. Anger takes all kinds of forms, and without God’s transformation in our hearts, none of it ever accomplishes anything good. James, the brother of Jesus, counsels us correctly as members of God’s family: “You must be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.” I am certain every one of us has personal stories that would document the truth of James’s assessment. No matter how “righteous” we convinced ourselves our anger was, the goals God has for life and relationships were not accomplished by the way we managed our anger.

The root cause of most of our issues in life is the way we have chosen to manage our anger. Our adapted selves do things that feel self-protective, but in actuality they damage and destroy what we need most. Our hope and help are found in surrendering our old adaptive selves to God and finding the authentic, transformed selves that were His intention when He created us.

• Pray: Talk to God about the way you manage your anger. Acknowledge the gap between who you are and who He created you to be. Ask Him to guide you in transformation. It’s His desire and joy.