Managing Anger from Painful Experiences

Greetings All,

    This week's 'thought'  is for those who have had to wrestle with any type of underlying anger or rage resulting from painful experiences in their past.  In the following prayer, it was the rage of a lady who had been sexually abused as a young child.  Such abuse, unfortunately, is more common than we would like to believe (as is the suppressed anger or rage that often goes with it).  In fact, recent studies indicate that 38% of all women have been sexually abused at one time or another (at least the ones who have come forward to acknowledge it) -- though not necessarily in childhood.
     Thus I send out this thought/prayer for those who may fall into that category, or know someone who falls into that category.  It was written by Richard Foster to help one particular lady work through her anger. It is not (as he makes clear) a quick fix, nor is it a substitute for professional help, but simply a prayer offered to help people move forward in that long process toward healing. It is found in his superb book, "Prayer Treasury."  Foster advises that this prayer be read and prayed in small portions, over time, "allowing the Spirit to search your mind and heal your heart" as you do.
     I have encouraged the use of this prayer in counseling sessions, and have had people come to me after doing so, expressing that they found help for their soul in praying through it.  I trust it may minister to some who receive it in this mailing and see it now for the first time -- not just in regard to sexual abuse, but any abuse. Sometimes we speak of the healing that needs to take place, but fail to give the steps toward attaining it. This prayer gives some of those steps.

          A Prayer for Rage

      I. Acknowledgement
  

 

 Dear God, I come to you with an overwhelming anger, a burning rage.
  This rage is like a cancer shut up in my bones, eating away at my soul.

  Today, O God, I acknowledge this rage.
  I do not suppress it, or hide from it.
  Thank you, Lord, thank you for accepting me, rage and all.
 
      II. Expression

  O God, I feel a burning rage within.
  A fire gone wild.  Burning, always burning.
  God, I hate what was done to me.
  It was so evil. So wrong.

  Why this evil?
  Why this degradation?
  Why, why, why?

  My rage, O God, is the only power I have against this vicious world.
  That's why I cannot let it go.
  Please, God, don't ask me to let it go.

III. Turning

  God, I cannot separate my hatred for what was done,
  from the person who did it.
  I despise the deed.
  I loathe the person who did the deed.
  My rage is my only revenge.
  

  But, God, my rage destroys me too.
  I feel this seething anger searing my own soul.
  O Lord, my God, deliver me from the evil I would do to myself.
 

 IV. Forgiving

  I refuse to allow this evil to control me any more.
  I will not be held in bondage to my hate any longer.
  But, the strength to love is not in me.
  I must wait for your enabling.

 

  Now, in your great power, and with a trembling heart,
  I speak your word of forgiveness.
 
     

V. Healing

 

May your healing light shine, O God, into every crevice of my soul.
  Rage once made me feel strong.
  But now I receive your light, encircling me with love.

  I have not forgotten what was done to me.
  I will never forget.
  But today I choose to live as your child of infinite worth. 
  Amen."

    His prayer is followed by the words of Lady Julian of Norwich (1342-1413 A.D.) who said that God, in tender love, comforts all those trapped in pain and sin by speaking these words:


 

          "But all shall be well,
              and all shall be well,
                  and all manner of thing shall be well."

      May the healing power of Jesus touch touch your heart, Pastor Jeff