The Overwhelming Importance of Christians NOT Worrying, NOT being Afraid, and KEEPING Anger under Control!

21 Oct 2026 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Scrip-Bit   21 October 2026   Proverbs 14:29.

Proverbs 14:29.       ‘He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit (impulsive, short of spirit) exalteth folly.’

And it’s another beautiful autumn day in my neighbourhood! The Lord’s certainly blessing us with good weather, and let’s hope we catch our second wind on this glorious Wednesday, so we can continue doing good work for Him. Now, since the Lord blessed us life again today, let’s keep yesterday’s vow to continue looking at the scriptural attributes of the Christian D. Larson poem ‘Promise Yourself.’ And yesterday, we’d stopped at the last verse of the poem, which says to promise ourselves ‘To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.’

Oh boy, that verse points to all kinds of scriptures. ‘To be too large for worry,’ coincides with Jesus’ teaching on the subject in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for (do not worry about) your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat (food), and the body than raiment (clothing)? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought (worrying) can add one cubit unto his stature (height)?

And why take ye thought for (worry about) raiment (clothing)? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed (clothed) like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe (clothes) the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Therefore take no thought (do not worry), saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow (don’t worry about tomorrow): for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient into the day is the evil (trouble) thereof.’ (Matt. 6:25-34)

There we have it friends; Jesus’ treatise on worry. And I know it’s difficult not worry, especially in these oppressive and turbulent times, but if we follow Jesus’ formula, we will not be consumed by worry, and that will give us time to concentrate on the necessary things, like God and His righteousness.

Then, there’s ‘too noble for anger.’ And there are so many scriptures that talk about not letting anger control us, that we can only address a couple of the more well known ones. Like this one from Bruh David in Psalm 37. ‘Cease (refrain) from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil (for it only causes harm).’ (Ps. 37:8) Then Cousin Sol offers this gem from Proverbs. ‘He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit (impulsive, short of spirit) exalteth folly.’ (Prov. 14:29) That means we need to control our tempers and thus our anger, otherwise we’ll look and be considered foolish.

Now, here’s this other practical gem from Bruh Paul to the Ephesians. ‘Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:’ (Eph. 4:26) And that’s wonderful advice my brethren, as the scholars say: ‘Sinful anger is to be replaced by (briefly held) righteous indignation, that the devil may not be given an opportunity.’ Yes, our anger ought to be short lived, and never go to bed angry, because it will disturb our sleep and we’ll most likely also wake up angry, thus starting our day on the wrong foot.

And when we come to promising ourselves to be ‘too strong for fear,’ well there are even more scriptures on that than on anger. So let’s quote a few of them, beginning with this well known verse from Isaiah, where he encourages his people Israel. ‘Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.’ (Is. 41:10) Then there’s this marvellous verse from Bruh David in Psalm 23. ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.’ (Ps. 23:4)

Meanwhile, the author of Hebrews, having relayed the Lord’s promise to never to leave nor forsake us, (Heb. 13:5) then confidently declares: ‘So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall (can) do unto me.’ (Heb. 13:6) And we have the gumption to not fear also based on these words of Jesus: ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’ (John 14:27)

And it’s worthwhile to note that during His time on earth Jesus was always chiding those around Him about their fear, or encouraging them not to fear, like these two scriptures illustrate. The first one deals with Jesus and His disciples  crossing the sea of Galilee and a big storm suddenly arises, while Jesus sleeps in the stern of the boat apparently unaware of the storm. In terrible fear, the disciples awaken Him. Jesus gets up, rebukes the wind and calms the sea, then says to the disciples: ‘Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?’ (Mark 4:40)

Then, on the way to heal the daughter of the synagogue leader Jairus, Jesus hears him being told that his daughter had died, He turns and simply says to Him: ‘Be not afraid, only believe.’ (Mark 5:36) Those are words we all ought to take  to heart in these evil and ungodly times. Now, please note that fear is a natural human occurrence, and the Lord expects us to be afraid at times, however, the problem is what do we do, and where we go when we’re afraid? The Lord expects us to come to Him in times of fear, because He is able to handle any fear that consumes us, as He so assertively says to Joshua.

‘Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest.’ (Josh. 1:9) And that’s a wonderful scripture for us to ponder on today, as we go home declaring our Wednesday Wail, letting the whole world know of our marvellous position in Christ Jesus.

As one strong and sincere voice: ‘Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: I’m so glad to be alive on this Wednesday! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: Thank God the breath of life is still flowing through me on this Wednesday! I am halfway home. My hands are fixed securely on the plough, and I’m not turning back. I’m not looking back at the past, not focusing on what has gone before. But my eyes are fixed straight ahead; straight ahead to a glorious future with Jesus. Glory Hallelujah!’

And for those who endure to the very end with Jesus, it’s been promised they’ll enjoy an even more glorious future than our finite brains can comprehend. So please, let’s endure to the very end, so that we can endure that more than glorious future together! Much LOVE!

…in living for Jesus…we don’t need to worry, be angry, or fearful…for He has us well protected…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit 18 October 2019 Proverbs 16:32.

18 Oct 2019 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Proverbs 16:32.   ​He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

 

Yeah, it’s Friday! And though the sun is struggling to get out from under the cloud cover, there is joy in the land, simply because it’s Friday and the workweek is ending! Thus, there are many ‘Praise the Lord’s!’ both sincere and insincere, (smile) ringing out from all parts of the world. And there’s none louder than that of the ordinary workingman, who never shies away from expressing his true feelings. 

And today, he shouts: ‘TGIF! Thank God is Friday oui! What a week it’s been! I ate and drank and partied so much this past Thanksgiving weekend, that I was truly sick come Tuesday and couldn’t go to the slave master’s work. Obviously he tried to give me a hard time when I showed up on Wednesday, but I just ignored him, because I have my sick time rights and this one was certainly legitimate. He feels that nobody should ever book off sick, because he loses money when they do. 

But when he books off sick is okay though, because he’s the boss… Chuh! Just forget the li’l greedy man yes! And yuh better believe this weekend is going to be strictly rest! I like mih food and drinks, but not to the extent that I want them to get me sick. I surely hope I learn mih lesson this time yes. Thank God for Fridays and weekends oui!’ 

Ah friends, yuh see what happen when we overdo it? Unwanted consequences usually come back to haunt us. As Uncle Charles (Dr. Charles Stanley) likes to say: ‘You reap what you sow; more than you sow, and later than you sow.’ And that’s the gospel truth! It holds in all situations in life! So let’s turn now to our Friday Chant nuh, which isn’t as verbose and in your face as the workingman’s song, but does do the trick for us believers. 

All together in true sincerity now: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through another week of work! It hasn’t been easy, but with your generous help, I made it through. Now, please help me to get sufficient fun, fellowship, rest and relaxation in these two short days off, so that I can be renewed and refreshed in soul, body and mind, to go back out and do it all over again next week, furthering your glorious kingdom with each step I take. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen!’ 

Yes, we do need to be careful how we operate, because the enemy, like the roaring, toothless lion that he is, is always lurking around seeking ways to get into our lives and create havoc. And I have a very good testimony on that point to share. This morning as I was getting ready to write the Bit, my trusty desktop computer began playing the fool. It just would not access the Internet after booting up. 

And as the Lord would have it, I opened the Good Book and began flipping pages and just happened to stop in Proverbs 16…no I don’t think that just happened nuh, because the Word that I read plainly said: ‘He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.’  

That was certainly more than mere coincidence, because every time I turned my computer off and on, and got no progress, I could feel the anger rising up in me and I wanted to give it a few good thumps. But with that scripture staring me straight in the face, and knowing that the Lord, or the enemy was testing my resolve, I managed to not thump it, and it did behave properly after the fifth or sixth time of turning it on and off. 

I believe the Lord saved me though, because I’m pretty sure that I would have thumped it if I had had to go through the annoying rigmarole one more time. (smile) So I passed the test…but just barely. And that’s the way this earthly life is my faithful brethren. Life just likes to test us, to muddy our waters and see how we react. 

Sometimes it’s the Lord, other times it’s the enemy. But whoever or whatever causes us to find ourselves between a rock and hard place, we need to be able to bring up scripture written indelibly in our souls, bodies and minds, to help us handle them in a godly and sensible manner. And today we just going to check out a few of those scriptures that we need to have as our bedrock, our fortification against unnecessary anger. 

Hear Cousin Sol earlier on: ‘He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit (impulsive) exalteth folly.’ (Prov.14:29) And that’s certainly no lie, as many of us have found out over the years. And just recently we featured these immortal verses from Bruh Paul to the Ephesians. 

‘Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.’ (Eph.4:31-32) Words of eternal wisdom my brethren! 

Meanwhile James adds his two-cents worth thus: ‘Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not (does not produce) the righteousness of God.’ (James 1:19-20) And if you’re a true believer, you ought to know that. But listen to the scholars’ explanation anyway. 

‘1:19. This is a key verse because it expresses three topics that James develops later: hearing, verses 19-27; speaking, 3:1-12; and wrath, 4:1-12.’ ‘1:20. Trials require silence and patience because talk inflames anger, and anger inflames talk. Anger also distracts from listening to God.’ I hope we all hear that friends: anger distracts us from listening to God, and when we don’t listen to God, we go astray and end up suffering severe consequences. 

And here are some final words on the subject from Cousin Sol once again. ‘The discretion of a man deferreth his anger (makes him slow to anger); and it is his glory to pass over (overlook) a transgression.’ (Prov.19:11) Awright mih people, there’s the ammunition to fight the battle against anger, let’s go out and put it to good use now nuh! It’s Jesus’ desire for all His followers. Much LOVE!

…be ye angry…and sin not…let not the sun…go down upon your wrath… (Eph.4:26)