Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Yet you, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
Do not forgive their iniquity,
do not blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be tripped up before you;
deal with them while you are angry.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, June 23, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I have to say I kind of got a chuckle out of the last line. I know Jereimah is in serious doo-doo. People literally want him dead. No one wants to hear the truth about how they need to give up their material possessions and power to take care of those most in need. But he says to God, “Hey, if you’re going to help me out, do it while you’re totally ticked off, okay?” Because then God isn’t just going to stop them from killing Jeremiah, but maybe God will smite them!
I know for me, when I act from a place of anger, I don’t ever make the best possible decision. Like, not… ever. Anger is blinding. It prevents any sort of reasonableness. It precludes compassion. It escalates absolutely everything. I have learned this hard lesson in raising two kids with autism. If I even raised my voice in the slightest, it sent them immediately off the emotional rails and the mess I had to clean up was far, far worse than what it would have been if I’d just paused and calmed down before responding.
This isn’t just true for my neurodivergent kiddos. Anytime we raise our voices or act out of irritation or anger, we shut down any possibility of cooperation and productive resolution. So maybe we shouldn’t ask God to act out of anger—who knows who might get caught in the crossfire!
How can I defuse my anger before responding to challenges?
