I was listening to a couple messages by John Piper from the 1997 Passion Conference (I would highly recommend it! Check out the links at the bottom of this post) which I used to listen to regularly in my college days and that had greatly impacted me to deny my sinful cravings for the great joy of serving God. I just had to share this George Mueller quote Dr.Piper gives: "Before I go out in the morning, I must have my heart happy in God or I will be of no use to anybody. I will use them and try to get them to satisfy my cravings and vacancies."
That caused me to think of how I often use my anger to manipulate people, to use people. If my heart is not happy in God then I try to use people to make me happy and when they fail to do that for me ("What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? you want something but don't get it...James 4:1-2), I become angry and use my anger, whether it be yelling or the "silent treatment," to manipulate them into doing what I want. "I must make my heart happy in God!" How crucial it is to the training of my children, to doing housework with joy, to submitting to my husband, to being any kind of encouragement to anyone that I would make my first work of the day to make my heart happy in God alone through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross!!
If you would like to hear these messages, I am pretty sure these are very similar (actually given at a Sovereign Grace Celebration conference) and are free to download from desingGod.org:
God's Passion for the Supremacy of God
Our Passion for the Supremacy of God
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