Anger Management
Psalm 4:4 (Amplified Bible)
4Be angry [or stand in awe] and sin not; commune with your own hearts upon your beds and be silent (sorry for the things you say in your hearts). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
Romans 12:9-12 (Amplified Bible)
9[Let your] love be sincere (a real thing); hate what is evil [loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from wickedness], but hold fast to that which is good. 10Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another. 11Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord 12Rejoice and exult in hope; be steadfast and patient in suffering and tribulation; be constant in prayer.
This weekend when I was having a moment trying to get some work done on my Master’s dissertation, I took a moment to breath and as I did I thought how many times I had seen and heard about anger getting out of control to a point that it was unmanageable. I began to just meditate on the fact that without proper management of emotions they can quickly go awry and we can end up doing, saying and behaving in a way that can be detrimental to not just us but others around us. I have watched people unable to control a person or a situation try to use sarcasms, intimidation and rudeness to dominate and control an environment. I have watched people dripping with anger and malice enter a room and turn it from positive to negative with just a statement. I have watched anger go from words spoken to pushes and shoves, to hits and slaps being justified by the words “I knew what I was doing or it wasn’t that bad?”
Anger out of control is always bad. It is always bound to hurt someone and cause them pain. Anger if it is not managed can destroy a marriage, a friendship, a family, a church or a community. In fact anger and revenge can wreak havoc in a world which all we need to do is turn on the television to verify that fact. The Bible reminds us that anger within itself is not a sin, but it is when we allow anger to have a controlling interest in how we respond or react that it crosses from just an emotion to an area of sin. When anger can cause you to justify harm and pain on any level to another individual, it has become sin. When anger makes you begin to think how we can get back at that individual, then it is sin. When anger insight us to be someone other than a child of God then it is sin. You see as long as anger is just an emotion that is kept in check and maintained, it is not bad, but it when it becomes unbridled that it becomes a problem.
God wants us to check ourselves before we wreak ourselves in this area. We need to establish a system of checks and balances. Sometimes it is best for us to come away from that situation that is inciting the anger. We need to learn how to pray over ourselves and if we cannot we need to have an accountability partner that will speak into us wisdom and God’s word to help us come down off the ledge of anger, and they should be able to pray for us, as well. We need to allow God to deal with our hearts and evaluate why we are becoming so angry and irate. One of the biggest mistakes that we make is that we do not let love abide. We rather get mad first and go all the way to the left then to allow the love of God show itself forth and the love that we are supposed to have for one another be visible and recognizable. We need to recognize that the same forgiveness that is needed from us and being asked of us may be something we will need one day, so we need to use Godly wisdom and judgment to help us to know when far has become too far. Respect for God, ourselves and others should always play a part in how we handle anger. We have to try to keep before us that our life is a testimony, but who is it witnessing to and who would be let down or damaged if our witness did not hold up? You see we can approach anything with reason or without it, but to do so with anger is to give way to actions and reactions that could cause a ripple of reactions and an aftermath of destruction in its path. Get a handle on your anger, before it handles you and those who encounter it!
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