Warning : Anger

Have you ever been angry 😡? I think it is safe to say that we all have felt that emotion from time to time. While it is a natural impulse, we take notice and be very cautious when we feel that emotion welling up inside. God put anger inside us to function like an alarm 🚨 bell. When we feel that alarm going off, we need to make sure we are very slow to act on that feeling. It is a God given warning ⚠️ that tells us that we need to exercise caution in our reactions after feeling that warning.

The dictionary defines anger as:

Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat.

A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline.

Ephesians 4:26-27 —Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: [27] Neither give place to the devil.

So, as a Christian, how can you be angry and not sin?? Anger itself isn’t a sin. It’s how you act on that emotion that often becomes the sin. If you act on the anger unjustly, you are giving place to the Devil. When you feel angry, you must be careful to make sure your “reactions” line up to the Word of God!! God himself is “angry” with the wicked. He is a just and righteous God. He becomes angry when someone breaks His laws or violates His righteous standards. Because we are striving to be more like Christ, we are permitted by Scripture to have righteous anger (or indignation). Righteous anger is when we become angry about the things that make God angry. We hate the things that God hates! If we are angry about sin or something that is displeasing to the Lord, that would be considered righteous anger. But even having a righteous anger, we must still be cautious in our reactions. Although evil and wickedness should anger us, we are not always the ones tasked to pour wrath out on others. Like Christ, we must be merciful, gracious, and kind. Only through prayer and allowing the Lord to direct our steps may we deal with an issue righteously.

More often, however, due our fallen nature, we deal with sinful type of anger. This kind of anger is usually manifested after we feel slighted or done wrong ourselves. Every time we are mad, we should check ourselves to see if we are upset at the things God hates. Otherwise, we may be angry without just cause and we may inadvertently be giving place to the Devil. We must allow God to have full reign in our lives to where we aren’t easily angered or offended in our own lives. Uncontrolled anger quickly leads to doing wrong. Being angry is not an excuse to sin. We must have self control or temperance over our anger (temper)… Being labeled “a hot head” or someone prone to “fly off the handle” are not funny or desirable traits for a Christian. Many of Christians have lost their influence with others by allowing their temper to rule over them.

In our text above, Paul gives us some great advice about how to keep a handle on our anger— We must not let our anger sit unresolved! We can’t allow a lot of time to go by before dealing with the issue. We should make dealing with our anger a priority. Otherwise, bitterness or the desire for vengeance can grow, leading to more sinful thoughts and actions. While anger can be a helpful (warning sign) emotion, it must be handled cautiously and quickly to avoid becoming sin.

Always remember—Anger is not a state to "live in," only an emotion to be "dealt with." Holding onto our anger will become sin if we don’t deal with it in a timely manner.

While we should act quickly to resolve issues, we also must make sure to cool down enough to seek God’s guidance first. When we’re angry, we can do or say something we might regret later or act in a way that may hurt those around us but more importantly, our brash, fleshly reactions may disappoint God. A Godly person will wait until their anger fades before making amy decision or taking any action. We should never react or lash out in anger. Doing that is almost a guarantee for a disaster. We must allow God to guide our steps and give us wisdom on how to handle the difficult situation. If we react in our own flesh, we often will handle things badly. But if we allow the Spirit to have full control, He can help us handle a situation with grace and wisdom.

God wants us to be vessels that shine out His love to this lost and dying world. It’s our testimony in our everyday lives that He most often uses to show others His goodness. It’s not what we say that really matters, but rather, it’s how we live! If we desire to be like Christ, we should try to immolate His example.

1 Peter 2:19-23

[19] For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. [20] For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. [21] For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: [22] Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: [23] Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

Wow! That definitely takes being “died out to the flesh” to do that! Our natural tendency is when we are hurt, to hurt that person back, or when we are reviled, to revile back again! That takes the Spirit to be ruling and reigning supreme in our hearts to be able to do such a thing! But look at verse 20! Peter is telling us that our reactions (or lack of them) are a great witness for God and it pleases God when His children follow Christ’s example and behave as He would. It brings glory to God when someone is done wrong, yet they aren’t angered or upset. They aren’t being self righteous or pompous. They simply know they are ambassadors for Christ and their actions may be the only Bible some folks ever read.

Christians are called to a higher standard of living. We shouldn’t be quick to become angry and to exhibit our rage by mouthing off and saying harsh things with our words. God desires for us to have such a spirit about us that others take notice that we have been with Jesus. No one is ever gonna see that in us if we are caustic with our words and allow our temper to control our actions. Jesus is nowhere near that kind of spirit.

Everyone wants to use the part where Jesus became angry and overthrew the money changer’s tables in the temple as justification for their own anger. Well, Jesus himself got mad and he even overthrew the tables! I have often heard….But what they don’t realize, Jesus actually was at the same temple the day before. He saw all that going on there. He left and spend the entire night in prayer. He was God. He knew what He was going to do! So, why did He leave and spend an entire night in prayer before acting on his anger? Because, He was modeling an example FOR US!!

What was His example on how to handle anger?

•Don’t react initially to what you see or the wrong you perceive is being done .

•Get away from the situation entirely to help you cool down and gain perspective.

•Spend time in prayer to get wisdom from God on how best to handle the situation. We don’t read where Jesus and the disciples were hashing it out and talking about how He was going to handle it. NO! He simply showed us we should take our anger to God for wisdom to handle it!

• Then and only then, after completing the previous steps, did we see Jesus act. His actions were not brash reactions to what He saw, but rather, prayerful, mindful, and thoughtful actions (after much reflection) to the wrong that He felt truly needed to be addressed.

Jesus’ anger was justified because it was that righteous indignation we talked about earlier. It was sins against God and His laws. He wasn’t reacting out of a sense of a wrong being done directly to Him. He was simply vindicating His Father. When Jesus was mocked, spit on, beat, tortured, and crucified, never do we read of Him justifying Himself or even addressing the wrongs He was done. He just said, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.”

Wow! Talk about an example! If we would look to Jesus and His example, instead of dwelling on the hurts and the wrongs that have been done to us, we would quickly realize none of us have ever went through what our Savior did. We must allow our Spirit to have reign over our emotions and our reactions and allow God to govern our lives with His precepts!

We must not act like the world! We are a set apart people! We have been called unto Holiness, not just in dress, but also in attitude! We must behave as Holiness people! We have allowed carnality to creep in to where we often react just like the worldly crowd does. We react to situations, scream, holler and fight just like the rest of them! We now even have sanctified curse words and phrases!— (if it is used in place of a curse word or phrase and you say it in anger, you might as well go ahead and curse. It is not any different in the sight of God! His Holy people shouldn’t behave like that!)

I recognize that we are human, and sometimes, we may mess up and made mistakes but that’s when the Holy Ghost that dwells inside us should check us and remind us that Godly people don’t act like that. We then should make it right, however necessary. Much to our shame, We often squelch that still, small voice deep inside our hearts that makes us feel bad about our behavior. We try to justify our reactions and our anger by pointing out the wrong or the hurt that was done to us! We deceive ourselves into thinking that we had a right to act that way! But we need to fall back at the altar and allow the cleansing power of God’s Word to wash our hearts clean from the filth of the flesh! We must have our minds and our thoughts transformed and renewed by God. Our minds must be spiritual, not carnal. A carnal mind sees no problem with reacting in anger. A spiritual mind understands that our actions are often our main testimony and we must not mar the testimony or influence God had given us by reacting brashly or in anger. See the difference?

It all goes back to a heart issue. If our heart is right with God and we are seeking to be full of His spirit, it isn’t grievous to allow Him to renew our thinking to become more like Him. We will be willing to just “forbear” some things in order to stay right with God and be a testimony for His Glory. We won’t be quick to be offended and angry. We will give people the benefit of the doubt. ( Often, people lash out because they too are hurting or going through a difficult struggle.) Don’t let your anger be an automatic response. Be willing to give others some grace just as Christ gave us grace!

Let‘s follow Jesus’ example and become more like Him in every way.

From my heart to yours,

–Tiphanie ❤

Food for thought: Would someone be able to see Jesus more clearly by looking at your actions or by seeing your reactions to bad situations/circumstances?

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