My emotions
Like a wild beast
A tiger crouching
Ready to pounce
And tear at my insides
As if my heart were its prey
My emotions
Can’t be tamed
For every time I reach
They bite like ravenous wolves
Making me bleed tears
That fall down my cheeks
My Helper comes
Extends His arm forward
I cringe as I expect
Frustration
Bitterness
Sadness
Anger
Pain
To attack Him
But He looks at me
“Will you let Me in the gate?”
“Yes Lord.”
I open the gate
He goes into the wild
He pets them and calms them
Patience
Restoration
Joy
Love
Empathy
Tamed at last
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Hello, and happy Monday! 🙂 The first two photos are two cats I had years ago, Simba and Sonny. I feel like I need to apologize to Jackie for using this photo again, but it captures the untamed feeling I was going for. 😅 I know this is a little different than the poems I usually post but I wanted to try something different and raw. I hope you enjoyed and have a great day! ❤
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb – the LambofGod, which takes away the sin of the world. (Revelation 14:10 & John 1:29)
The idea to put those Revelation 14:10 and John 1:29 together came from this video:
**As a warning, there are some dark images in this video, but for me, they were used properly and it just highlighted the love of God, that because of Jesus, I will be spared God’s wrath.
Here are the other Scriptures that inspired the poem from yesterday here. I usually put them at the end of the poem, but I had so many thoughts I made a new post for the sake of length. 🙂
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.” (Matthew 12:30-32)
“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’ “ (Rom 12:19)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith… Gal 5:22
(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth…) Eph 5:9
And the entirety of Nahum 1 (I’ll just give a link to it Click!) but for the seventh and eighth stanzas, I pretty much took directly from
God is jealous, and the LORD avenges; The LORD avenges and is furious. The LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies;
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And will not at all acquit the wicked.
(Nahum 1:2-3)
Who can stand before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, And the rocks are thrown down by Him.
(Nahum 1:6)
Interestingly, I didn’t find any Scripture that directly stated that Jesus took The Father’s wrath, as I expected to find. When Jesus said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”, it is a direct quote from Psalm 22, but I guess I took it as it appeared – that God forsook Jesus. But then… Refreshing Spirit pointed out verse 24, “For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He cried to Him, He heard.” (New King James Version capitalized like that – I’m used to the KJV, so seeing these caps was a shock. XD) This seems to be clear that the Father never turned away from His Son.
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read— ‘because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched.’ ” ’ (Second Kings 22:17)
All the places I’ve found in which God forsook someone, the other person forsook Him first. Also, His wrath is toward cities such as Sodom and Gomorrah, which were totally wicked. Jesus never forsook the Father and was never wicked, so He doesn’t meet these criteria.
You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness. Why do You look on those who deal treacherously, And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours A person more righteous than he?
The context here is that Habakkuk is wondering why the wicked seem to be prospering (thanks Refreshing Spirit!). This is how the NASB translates the verse:
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?
This verse is saying God doesn’t approve of wickedness. Jesus wasn’t wicked. So this can’t really apply to God looking at Jesus on the cross.
At this point, I am thinking that when Jesus bore the punishment of the sins of the world, wrath was not included.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (First Peter 2:24 – Thanks T.R. for bringing this verse to my attention.)
And He died in our place. But it doesn’t say He took God’s wrath. Jesus died for us so God won’t become wrathful toward us.
God still has wrath toward the wicked; so all of God’s wrath wasn’t poured out on Jesus. But I am thankful that the Ultimate Sacrifice saves the children from having the Father’s wrath poured on them. ❤
And His children crave the right fruit. The fruit from the Tree of Life. That fruit can’t save, but when Jesus is Savior, the Holy Spirit allows us to crave the right fruit from the right tree and we have the power to overcome temptations through Him.
Worldly fruit is at first sweet,
But bitter in the end –
Like Adam and Eve
Discovered in the luscious garden.
The fruit of the wrong tree –
Eating from it is to defy God’s will –
That fruit is bad for me,
Yet I’m tempted to eat of it still.
Fruit of the flesh
Which came from the pit –
Eating it will bring death.
I look at the Fruit of the Spirit…
Against eating this fruit, there is no law
I reach for fruit from the Life-Giving Tree
And feel my heart begin to thaw
My icy heart of stone, melting within me
I am not worthy to approach this tree
The Fruit of the flesh is easier to get
Oh Lord Jesus, only You can help me
Eat of this fruit and not the one from the pit!
Soon the harvest will be ripe,
And the angel will reap
The vine of the Earth – the wicked
Will be crushed beneath His feet!
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
And will not at all acquit the impious –
His fire and brimstone will come and shower
His enemies with His righteous vengeance!
For Who could stand before His indignation?
And who could endure His anger?
His fury will be poured out like flames from heaven,
As He destroys the wicked and sinner.
Oh, I no longer wish to gratify
The sinful nature within me,
I only want to satisfy
My Lord God Almighty!
Whoever believes has life that will never cease
And will be with Him forever as He reigns.
Whoever doesn’t will find no peace
For on them, God’s wrath will remain.
The display of His wrath showcases
That His goodness is perfect and holy;
His wrath is aimed at sinfulness and wicked places –
I can’t begin to comprehend His holiness and glory!
The beautiful Tree of Life
Is the one I desire to crave;
Eating of it causes no strife
I’m satisfied forever and a day!
This spawned out of a Gospel study with Olivia at Refreshing Spirit. There are 34 parts to this study (this was inspired by part three), and there will be notes and more stories like this whenever we finish a part. The theme for this was The Fall – Sin and the Wrath of God. Scripture references and thoughts // study notes I had while writing this poem will come out in a separate post on Monday morning, for the sake of length. 🙂
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
Hello, my name is Jennifer Robinson. I am a coach’s wife, mother of two, writer and wannabe chef and designer. Join me to discover how to live simply, humbly, and joyfully
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