A friend shared with me the other day that he wonders if people who are always angry are such, at least in part, because they carry around in their hearts a picture of God being angry with them. I shared with him that I have thought the same for some time. Luther once said something along the lines of "He is toward you as you picture Him to be." I think I'd go further and say: "We are (and become ever more) as we picture Him to be toward us."
When we know Him as the God whose heart of hearts was revealed for us upon the Cross we understand the OT cry: "The Lord, the Lord, gracious and merciful!" That's the deepest truth there is about Him: His love, His mercy, His kindness extended to us in the defeat of our enemies through the gift of His Son.
We hold to that, we cling to that, and as we do, it changes us. Really and truly. It changes us as He works in us to bring our hearts in line with the beating heart of this entire universe - the heart that poured forth blood and water when a spear opened it on Golgotha - blood and water to bring us a share in His own unending life.
I am reminded of the beautiful Christmas carol by Gerhardt:
Should we fear our God's displeasure,
Who to save, freely gave
His most precious treasure?
To redeem us He has given
His own Son, from the throne
Of His might in heaven. [LSB 360:3]
Yes, it is true as St. John wrote: "We love, because He first loved us." Lord, help us grow in this love and drive all fear and sinful anger from our hearts!
5 comments:
Those are some excellent thoughts that you have shared- cutting me with some Law (harboring anger and grudges, disbelieving what I know to be true about God) and curing with God's Gospel. Thanks. It is something great to ponder. Jeremy
Gerhardt is a treasure, I have two of his books and hope they publish more of his works.
He is indeed, Elaine. But do note that the final "t" differentiates two different men - both of whom are treasures! The Gerhardt who wrote the hymn was a pastor and hymn writer and responsible for some of our all time greatest hymnody in Lutheranism; Gerhard (no final t) usually refers to the greatest of the Lutheran dogmaticians and the author of the wondrous "Sacred Meditations." Both are GREAT, and they think a lot alike, but one was a poet, and the other wasn't. FWIW.
...he wonders if people who are always angry are such, at least in part, because they carry around in their hearts a picture of God being angry with them.
Well, yes, but. As you know, this is a subject to which I have devoted considerable time over quite a few years, and have also had lengthy discussions about it with my husband, who is a psychiatrist, and...
This thing also seems to work the other way around, and in fact, probably starts there: people who are angry to begin with (or who are plagued by guilt feelings, or insecurity) project an angry God and/or are attracted to that image.
It may be a spiralling effect, one feeding the other. But people beset by anger, I think, should look for other sources of their anger as well, in order to be sure of being able to get over it. In case their image of the angry God is not the root of the problem, but an effect. Or in case the a. G. is only ONE factor of the root cause.
Otherwise, if there is some OTHER source of their anger they never identify, they will never succeed in getting over being plagued by the angry God image.
Good thoughts, Anastasia, as usual.
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