By Chris WittsThursday 23 Mar 2023Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
I think many of us have a personal issue we want to change and that is anger. How many times have you today felt and expressed your anger? It almost seems there’s no solution. Why do I get so angry? Is there something wrong with me?
A lot of articles are written about this thorny topic. And many relationships have been destroyed or damaged when excessive anger is allowed to rear its ugly head. I’ve been in meetings where I’ve seen and heard unbridled anger cause a walk out, situations where people got “hot under the collar” as we like to say.
One day a lady in a brand-new Volvo had been driving around in a crowded car park, had finally found a spot and was just about to back into it when a young kid in a tricked-out Honda whizzed into the spot before her. As the Honda driver got out of his car and was walking away, the lady in the Volvo called out “I found that spot first. What gives you the right to push in and take it?” The young man laughed and said, “Because I’m young and quick” and kept on walking. All the sudden he heard the hideous sound of his car being heartily smashed. He turned around to see the lady in the Volvo repeatedly ramming her car into his. She caught his eye and said, “That’s because I’m old and rich!”. Anger is destructive.
When our anger is not dealt with, we use the things that we allow to upset us as bricks to build a wall of separation between ourselves and others. When things happen to us that we are not pleased with, we get angry, when we get hurt by situations or other people, we get angry. I’m sure you know what I mean. It seems some people can’t help themselves; they have a short fuse and have never learned to control their anger.
But here’s something to think about, what the Bible says about anger.
In Ephesians 4:26-27 it says “If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin. And do not stay angry all day”.
It has a helpful and robust message, and it’s from God’s word which is even better.
When these words were penned, they were powerful emotions, like wrath and fierce and turbulent outbursts. It’s about being bitter, irritated and having an outburst.
Let me clarify something here. There is nothing wrong with anger. No emotion is wrong. Jesus Himself was angry at times. So, it’s OK to be angry. But you have to be careful. Be angry if you must but like Jesus, anger is something that we need to put away, and when it happens, we need to know how to deal with it appropriately. We must not indulge our angry feelings or let them lead to pride, hatred, or self-righteousness.
In Mark 3 in the New Testament, Jesus Christ became angry at the merchants in the temple, but this was righteous anger and did not lead him to sin.
So, anger up to a point is not a sin; it remains with us until the day we die. But, if left unchecked, anger will wreak a great deal of damage to you as well as those in your path. An action taken in the heat of anger is almost always the wrong action. Think about situations you’ve found yourself in. Did the spontaneous act of anger do any good? Probably not. Most of the time it only makes bad situations worse. We usually can’t control the outburst.
In anger, we are not to seek our revenge. Romans 12:19 says “Don’t try to get even. Let God take revenge”.
One of the ways we stop nourishing anger is to put a time limit on it.
Because of the human tendency to allow personal vindictiveness to permeate anger, the safeguard suggested here is to put definite limitations of time on the exercise of anger.
In Bible times, sunset marked the end of one day and the beginning of another day; a Christian should not continue to be angry with his brother or sister in Christ from one day to the next but should seek reconciliation at once.
The same is true in the family. When people allow themselves to keep feeding their anger day after day, it will eventually destroy them along with their relationships.
The longer you allow the anger to build and control you, the harder it is to get past it, the more bricks you put in the wall of anger, the harder it will be to heal the hurt and restore the relationship.
Do you have someone in your life in which you have deep-seated anger? How do you feel about them? Maybe you are holding anger toward your wife or husband, and they may not even know it. Do you have good feelings toward someone you are angry with?