Why the World Feels So Angry—How True Peace Can Be Found

We are living in an intense and volatile world—marked by anger, division, fear, and constant pressure to find meaning somewhere outside of God. In this episode, Lenora Turner walks through a deeply biblical and hope-filled study of wrath, identity, and belonging, drawing from James 4, Ephesians 1–2, Romans 8, John 1, Psalm 91, and the life of Jesus Himself.

Many believers were taught that being “children of wrath” means God is angry with them—but Scripture tells a far more liberating story. This episode unpacks what the Bible actually means by children of wrath versus children of God, showing that wrath describes a condition of fallen humanity, not God’s posture toward those He loves. Jesus took judgment upon Himself so we could be reborn into a new household, a new identity, and a living relationship with God as our Father.

You’ll hear a reframing of repentance—not as shame or fear, but as turning toward a better source of life—and an invitation to step out of striving, exhaustion, and distorted views of God. This conversation offers clarity, rest, and confidence for anyone weary of chaos, confused about God’s character, or longing to experience real peace, security, and purpose.

Book offer - Prayer changes everything — especially when you’re seeking God for answers to anxiety, depression, relationships, finances, health, or life decisions. 100 Prayers Releasing 100 Cares shares real stories of answered prayer, biblical wisdom for hearing God’s voice, and practical faith tools rooted in Scripture to help you walk in freedom and bold trust in God. "100 Prayers Releasing 100 Cares" Click to order your copy today and begin praying with confidence!

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Transcript

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We're run by our emotions, by our passions, by our flesh, the desires of our body and our mind. So by nature, by what we are doing, we're showing that we are defined by the condition that we were born into. We're behaving like what we were born into. Humanity has been determined to be our own source, and we're starved to death of true satisfaction. Do you want to know God better, feel his presence, and experience his power? I know how it can be unsatisfying to spend time with God if you think you're invisible or it's foolish to hope. I'm Lenora, mom, Jesus lover, and international trainer. Let's get to know God better together. Pray with confidence and increase the impact of our life. So grab some coffee and let's talk. Hey, I wrote a book. It's called 100 Prayers, Releasing 100 Cares. It's full of real stories, scripture, and prayers for about every part of life. A link for the book is in the show notes. Some have said it is the best prayer book they've ever had. We are in an intense world, huh? I mean, there's plenty of things to be intimidated by, a lot of anger in the world, a lot of strife, a lot of chaos as I watch different things from different organizations and channels, and I don't watch too much of that, but enough to be surprised. I mean, it's just such an example of wrath, of anger. I talk a bit about this last week in a different way, but I ended up doing a study on wrath of all things, which I've never done before. And I just think it's incredibly relevant right now. In the past, numerous times I'd wake up in the morning and I'd learn to listen to a very subtle sense of a chapter to read or a verse. And numerous times I have felt to read James chapter four. That whole chapter starts off saying, why are there all these fights and quarrels amongst you? And then it talks about why. You you lust, you want these things, and you're angry because you don't get it, and you you don't get it, so you kill and take it from someone else. It just goes into the chaos, which is so relevant to what we're seeing in various areas of people not listening to each other, people demanding things for themselves, nations against nations, and so many issues. And then it goes on eventually to say, actually uses the term, you adulterers and adulteresses, you're unfaithful to God. You're looking for life, you're looking to meet the cravings within you, but you're doing it through idolatry. You're doing it by putting something that is not a God on the throne of your life as the answer for your life, and you're failing because of it. And just it says to repent, which is a word, of course, I grew up with repent, meaning like a mean word, repent, meaning you scumbag, turn. Repent simply means, do you see the light? If you do, if you're in the dark and someone turns a light on, you tend to turn to the light and head towards that. I'm not talking right now about you die and or almost die and see the light. You know, I'm not talking about that. I'm saying you see something better, you see the path, a truth, and you head towards it. That's what repent is, to turn away from something and turn into what you're now seeing is the answer. What you're now seeing is the solution. And God's saying, you need to turn to me, turn back to me, or turn to me in the first place, and I will satisfy you. I will be your source. I am the source. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He says, Come to me, you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Psalms 91 talks about he's the shelter, the most high God, the safe place, all these things that we're looking for. We actually all want to be in a secure, strong foundation, solid place. I mean, who wants to be in a shaky earthquake? We want to be in a safe place, a secure location and a source of real life, real satisfaction, peace meaning wholeness. We don't want to be at war with ourselves or with others. We're hungry for that. And God is the source. So, again, back to the term of wrath. This was really great for me to see. So I'm going to try and share this. I've been talking the last few weeks on the book of Ephesians because it's kind of my favorite book for some time now, although I got so many favorites. But Ephesians chapter one is repetitive about how good God is, how much He's planned for us. And I'm telling you, I grew up in church, and unfortunately, I had a mixture. We went to a few different churches, but some of them really helped me see that God loved me. Thankfully, most of them let me know to call on the name of Jesus for actual salvation, actual wholeness in life, satisfaction. And certainly they focused on the long-term eternity, but salvation is right now too. Anyway, other places they barely read the Bible. And if they talked about God, it it was vague and distant. So it's so good to get into the Word of God for yourself and yet get yourself planted with a group of people that are studying the Bible that really want to know God. I know that may sound boring to some people, but I'm telling you, it is actually the answer to what you're seeking for. God Himself is your answer. But anyway, so Ephesians, the whole first chapter talks so much about God planned for us. His whole plan was to be our Father, to bless us beyond our imagination, to be the source of life for us, to make us his own. It's bigger and better than you could imagine. And then it goes right into chapter two that says, You were dead in your trespasses and sins, which you once walked. This is talking about believers who are now faithful with Christ, because you once walked that way, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Are we not seeing that now? The passions of our flesh, I guess it's not new, but it's just more amplified, uh, caring about the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. When I was raised and taught about verse three, I took that as remember, God's mad at you, and you're under his wrath, like all of mankind. So they barely taught me about how good God was, how generous he was, how excited he was about his plan to make us his own. Instead, the focus was you're under wrath. And so the fear of God for me sometimes was more about being afraid of God than understanding the awesome, beyond imagination, power, reflection of, nature of, and the hugeness, there aren't the proper words to describe how how wonderful he is, and how you know you you do tremble at his sight, not because he's angry, because he just is so great. You cannot but be in awe of him. And so when it says, being by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, I realize this is not talking about you're under the anger of God. It's saying that like everyone else who's turned from God, there was the fall of mankind, meaning the turning away from God, choosing to be our own God. I'll decide what's right and wrong. I will lead myself. And because we have chosen really the God of this world who was full of pride and wanted to be God, we're run by our emotions, by our passions, by our flesh, the desires of our body and our mind. So by nature, by what we are doing, we're showing that we are defined by the condition that we were born into. We're behaving like what we were born into. Humanity has been determined to be our own source, and we're starved to death of true satisfaction. I did use Chat GPT as a great tool, and I always review it as well as request it to only be scriptural. I don't want a bunch of people's opinions, I want accurate study based on the language at the time, etc. And so I'm gonna make a comment on a few notes because Ephesians talks about being children of wrath, and it talks about children of God. So it's two different child words, two different kinds of belonging. So one or the other is the offspring defined by the condition they're born into. We all are born into this world and become me, me, me, I centered, and and who knows what delusion or or what we're taught or walk into, but we are defined by the condition live by the realm and being connected with the nature and the status, which is under judgment, because we're not treating each other right. We're not of a source for ourselves that can in any way match the holiness, the honesty, the truthfulness, the authenticity, the faithfulness of God. Now, those of you who know your Bible, Jesus came in to take on that judgment himself. The Son of God came to take on the judgment of our condition, of our behaviors, of our realm. He took that on himself as an innocent one who was not acting that way, wasn't born into that, was born of a virgin, born of God. He took on that judgment. So that's why people tell you, why Christians tell you, call on Jesus so that you're not under judgment. You can get free from, break free from the condition of the world. Now, the term children of God, which is in Romans 8, 16, and 17, John 1, 12, it's the same word, children of God versus children of wrath, but it's now defining the relationship is with God Himself. Identity is no longer rooted in nature, but in a new birth. That's why it's called born again, born from above, and union with God. And God's Spirit Himself bears witness that we are children of God. Romans 8:16. So I want to emphasize being children of something is not as much a learned behavior as it is an inherited condition. We want to be born of God, satisfied by God, back to God as our source, by believing on the name of Jesus. The Bible just says simply call on the name of Jesus. And John 1, 12 through 13 says, but all who did receive him, Christ, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood or of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, which goes back to Ephesians chapter 1. It's the will of God that you're his. It's the will of God that you let him take all the burden, take the load. That's why when people say, I'm good enough, I can go to heaven, you don't go into someone's house. You don't have a right to just walk into their house because you think you're good. You need to belong to that household. You need to have keys to that house. And if I have a particular address, you can't say, Well, I can take any path and get to your house, Lenora. No, you actually can't, because my house has an address. And strangers don't just get to walk in. So that's why you call on the name of Jesus, because I need to be born into his kingdom. I need to have back the nature of God, which he intended for us in the first place. Can you tell I'm a little passionate about it? But it was really nice for me to get out from under the focus of God's somehow angry. And I I am pretty free from that. But I discovered even in this study, because I was so ingrained in some of it, that there's still that part of my heart that's like, oh, I'm scared, you know, or you think these distorted views of God, and so your heart of hearts can still at times not want to be that close to God, not want to be that personal, because there's a strong belief that he's angry. Scripture says God is slow to anger. And if you read through the whole Bible, you really read through the whole Old Testament. When I did that long time ago, I realized He's actually profoundly patient. Profoundly merciful. Now, if you want to cherry pick a few verses and examples, you can make up all kinds of scenarios. But you read the whole thing, you really take it in, and God is profoundly patient. He is merciful, way more than we ever are. And he actually took on our punishment himself. So we can simply just call on him, and you're back to the source he wanted for you in the first place. And then if you go back into Ephesians, it talks more and more about how much he's given us, he's put us in seats with Christ in heaven. We get a full change of status, a change of household, full rights of inheritance. We're not merely spared punishment, we're placed as a son or a daughter of God. This is way more than a fairy tale. This is reality, and even understanding what being a Christian is, it's way bigger than you think. We get so locked up into all our behaviors, and our behaviors matter. We need to be honest with each other, make it right when we've screwed up, treating people with respect. Love people who are completely lost in this world and help them find their way to Christ, which is simply calling on his name, but they need to hear the message. But but we can't get locked up into petty things where you're just navel gazing all the time about whether or not God's mad at me or not mad at me. God is in love with you, he's taken the wrath on himself. The only way you're dealing with the wrath of God going forward is by refusing to let him take responsibility for your failures, responsibility for your sin, having enough humility to say, I need God, I am not the source of life, myself and nothing else can be an idol, which is and a false idol. I need the real source, I need the true God, and you need to dig in the Bible yourself if you're not convinced of this, and history that shows how strong, accurate, and stable the scripture is, how many ways, which mathematically is impossible, that Jesus fulfilled prophecies about himself that were hundreds of years prior to his birth, the odds are astronomical. So it's not just, hey, listen to somebody on a podcast, although you really can't just receive Christ from hearing a podcast and saying, God, I want this to be true. I ask you for Jesus into my life. I ask you to make me yours. I want what you did for me. So if you are sensing that, just ask right now. Just call on Jesus. Jesus, I accept. I can sense this is true, help me understand it, help me study it and grow into it. But I want you. I want the truth. I want the real source of life, and I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord. I accept a marriage, a covenant with the God of the universe, the God who made me and who loved me so much that He said, I've taken it all on myself, and I want to rescue you, and I want to show you who I've made you to be, and I want you to grow up in me, and I want you to know the gifts and talent that you have and the purpose for your life is well beyond what you could imagine. Even if you've had years of your life stolen from you through abuse, God will make up well beyond that. In this life, there's a lot of redemption. In eternity's time, he'll blow you away. Whether you have a moment with him on earth or a lifetime, he's your choice, he's your source. And then, like me, some of us have to untangle the weirdness or the mixture of what's just religious. And I don't, I'm not looking to down calling something religion if you really mean I have faith in Jesus Christ. But as humans, we're so good at turning things into formulas, and that's not what God is. So let me kind of wrap this up by saying that when you have called on Jesus, for all who are led by the Spirit of God or sons of God, Romans 8, 14 through 17, we have a new identity, we have a new inheritance with God. It's what he planned for us in the first place. We're defined by a relationship with him. We're no longer under condemnation of the just the lostness of the world. We're now justified in Christ because he took on the punishment for us. We are now heirs with Christ, joint heirs. Scripture talks about. We're set apart in Christ, we're no longer lost and starving for true satisfaction. In Christ, our nature is replaced with new life. And then the Bible teaches us, put off the old man, put on the new. And that's a process of growing up in Christ. Scripture teaches that humans are by birth children of wrath in Adam. In other words, we're children of our passions. We all behave by the things we're offended by, our responses and reactions, and thinking, and we can get caught up in all kinds of craziness. People talk about having multi-universes. You don't even need that theory. How many people are on the planet? That's how many different versions of this universe there are. We all have our own experiences, our own beliefs about it, our own thoughts that can just get us lost. Now, what you've learned matters, but God is the way, the truth, and the life. So I keep submitting my ways unto God's ways. And I'm defining God's ways by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the gospels in the New Testament, all the ways that Jesus lived out his life, the way he behaved, the actions he took. He says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So when I'm talking about God, I'm talking about watch what Jesus was like, and that's what I mean by God. And so I want to grow up into him. He's my source, but I'm yielding to him. His whole purpose was to make us his own and deal with the judgment himself for our failures. Don't stay out there in the world all by yourself, thinking God's mad at you. He wants an intimate relationship with you. Let him take the wrath. Let him take it because he did it in Christ. Get to know him. And if you already do, it's about getting to know him better so that we don't live in exhaustion by trying to earn our way into favor with God. Instead, our minds can get renewed so that we can actually receive the love of God, believe the love of God, and enjoy the life, the protection, the wisdom, the revelation knowledge that He asks us to ask for so that we can live out a life that has a plan and a purpose, and a God who's with you at all times. So I threw a lot out there and I could have thrown out more, but I'm gonna stop right here. And I ask God, I ask you to, whatever can be used out of this that I just shared, Father, I help you highlight it to the person, the thing they needed to hear, how much they are loved, and how good you are. In Jesus' name. Amen. Hey friend, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you please share it and leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts? That really helps me reach others. The link to 100 Prayers, releasing 100 cares, is in the show notes, and thanks for listening. Be kind to you because then it's a whole lot easier to be kind to anybody else.