When We're AngryНамуна

Step 3: God calls us to trust and obey.

Herodias could have responded to John’s message with trust and obedience. Instead, she attempts to meet her God-given needs for love, security, and agency on her own. When Herodias was caught in the spiral of shame and anger, what would it have taken for her to release her needs to God, trusting that God would fulfill them?

In Matthew 6, Jesus addresses this question. He says pagans run after food, drink, and clothing because they worry that their needs will not be met. We don’t have to run after any of these things, though, because our heavenly Father already knows we need them. Jesus instead asks us to seek first his kingdom and righteousness and trust that all our needs will be supplied. But how do we do this?

Welcoming Prayer can help. A great prayer for busy moms, Welcoming Prayer helps us obediently release our desires to Jesus, trust him to meet our deepest needs, and welcome him into the heart of our biggest struggles. Here’s a version of Welcoming Prayer we’ve found incredibly powerful:

Jesus, I release my need to feel safe and secure.

Welcome, Jesus, welcome.

Jesus, I release my need to be loved and accepted.

Welcome, Jesus, welcome.

Jesus, I release my need to control this person or event.

Welcome, Jesus, welcome.

Jesus, I release my need to change reality and receive it as it is.

Welcome, Jesus, welcome.

As we pray Welcoming Prayer over and over, even when the words stick in our throats, we slowly relinquish our demand for our versions of love, safety, and control. When desires battle within, resulting in anger, we can release those desires and then welcome Jesus into our reality: into the minivan with a tantruming child, at the kitchen table tutoring our learning-disabled teenager, in the rocking chair with the baby who just won’t fall asleep. Without judging ourselves and our desires, we tell Jesus, “Well, here it is. The reality of it. And the reality of how angry I am in the midst of it. Here it is, Jesus, and I welcome you into all of it. Your will be done.”

As we obediently release our desires to God, hour after hour, year after year, whenever we’re triggered or angry, we will come to see that God can be trusted to meet our deepest needs.

Prayer:

Welcoming Prayer is a great in-the-moment prayer. We can pray it while changing diapers, while mediating between bickering siblings, and while facing our teen who’s taken the car without permission. Memorize the prayer and pray it any time you feel yourself starting to get angry. As a shortcut, simply pray, “Welcome, Jesus, welcome.”