provoked and patient

There's no end to things that can provoke us to anger.  Someone crosses us, perhaps in traffic or in the checkout line.  Someone at home doesn't do things the way we like, or hasn't read our mind as to what we want.  Someone at school or at work doesn't appreciate us, or our work.  Someone doesn't respect our faith, or its values.  The list could go on and on.  And more often than we like to admit, such provocations do result in our anger, at least on the inside, if not on the outside.

God gets provoked too, or so we're told in the Prayer Book translation of Psalm 7:11 - God is provoked every day.  Can you imagine what He has to put up with from all of us, not only in the ways we provoke Him in our outward actions, but also in our thoughts, which He can read?  So He must be perpetually angry, right?

Wrong.  We're also told in that verse that God is a righteous Judge, strong and patient.  His response to being provoked is righteous, not rageful; it's strong, not self-protecting; it's patient, not hasty.  How lost we would be if the God we persistently provoke were not like this!

And so, as we pray for others, and particularly for those who have provoked us, may we listen first to Jesus' Prayer for others and for us, to The One Who is righteous, strong, and patient.  And may we pray accordingly.