Por Mark Dance

Estimado predicador enojado, usted tiene un problema, y por lo tanto se ha convertido en uno. Terminar la siguiente oración te ayudará a saber si esta publicación se dirige a ti.

Puedes ser un predicador enojado si…

• Mueves el puño cuando predicas.</li
• Culpas de todo a los actores y políticos.
• Despotricas en las redes sociales sobre, bueno, todo.
• Asumes que le estoy escribiendo esto a otra persona.
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Tu enojo no es único, pero es molesto y distrae. Estoy seguro de que tú también estás cansado de eso, así que mi motivo es ayudarte a destruir el enojo antes de que te destruya a ti, a tu familia y a tu ministerio.

Aunque el enojo es una emoción normal, hay una emoción invisible. Línea que cruzamos cuando nuestra ira saludable se vuelve dañina para los demás. Aquí hay cuatro soluciones que he encontrado útiles.

1. Cuida tu corazón.

Jesús es el único cardiólogo que puede resolver este problema del corazón. Dado que la paciencia es un fruto del Espíritu, Dios puede extinguir la ira que no podemos controlar.

Entonces, cuando mi sangre comienza a hervir, libero el control de la situación, y de mí mismo, simplemente rezando para tener paciencia.

“Enojate y no pequéis; en tu cama, reflexiona en tu corazón y quédate quieto y confía en el Señor” (Salmo 4:4).‭

2. Control your tongue.

Even as I write this in an airport terminal, I’m waiting on my second delayed flight of the day. My last trip included so many delays and cancellations that I arrived home a day and a half late!

The temptation to transfer my frustration onto innocent airline workers is real, but it’s never helpful.

“The intelligent person restrains his words, and one who keeps a cool head is a man of understanding. Even a fool is considered wise when he keeps silent, discerning when he seals his lips” (Proverbs‬ ‭17:27-28)‬ ‭

3. Protect your pulpit.

All Christians need to guard our hearts, tongues, and posts carefully—but pastors even more so. What we say on stage is even more heavily measured both on earth as well as a “stricter judgment” in heaven later (James 3:1).

A young deacon once told me his church was having “multiple dumpster fires.” He wasn’t wrong. The term “dumpster fire” was just added to Miriam-Webster as part of a batch of 850 new words and phrases added to the dictionary website.

As a noun, Webster defines dumpster fire as, “an utterly calamitous or mismanaged situation or occurrence: disaster.”

All churches have dumpster fires…just make sure you’re not the arsonist.

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person” ‭‭(Colossians‬ ‭4:6).‬ ‭

4. Dress for success.

More than a decade ago, I was well on my way to becoming the angry preacher I’m warning about here. I committed the following passage to memory by mentally getting dressed every day for almost a year.

“Put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth…since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self…Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” ‭‭(Colossians‬ ‭3:8-10,12-14‬).

I’m embarrassed to admit it took that long to get my heart right. If you’re an angry preacher, I strongly encourage you to get serious about rooting out anger before bitterness takes root in your heart, home, and ministry.