This thing called anger keeps crossing my path. I read a blog this morning where a woman talked about living with a very angry man. It should have been no surprise that after 2 years of dating a very angry man he would become an angry live-in, but some people are just unable to connect the dots.
In my own life I have learned that anger is a defense emotion. When we become angry we are protecting ourselves. When I feel the anger begin to boil I stop and ask myself: What am I protecting? And if I just stopped being angry, what would that say about me? Amazingly it works.
I thought I should do a little research on what the Bible said about anger. I was going to write some fantastic, deep, life changing blog on the spiritual aspects of anger, but after reading the verses I realized that there is no deep, life changing spiritual aspect of anger. The Bible simply says we should feel it but we shouldn’t act on it. I guess that is the take-away. Anger requires an action. We are left to decide what that action will be.
Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. James 1:19 Translation: keep anger in the trunk.
…because our anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. James 1:20 So God doesn’t want a bunch of angry people walking around down here? I think we should let that be known.
But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips! Colossians 3:8 Apparently we do have the ability to get rid of the bad stuff…who knew?
Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Ephesians 4 ~ Message So it’s alright to feel anger? Yep, just don’t use it.
Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind). Ephesians 4:31 Now there’s a list of emotions that are life suckers.
Do not make friends with the hot-tempered, do not associate with those who are easily angered,
Proverbs 22:23 I wish the poor lady who is now stuck living with the angry man would have read this while they were dating.
Mockers stir up a city, but the wise turn away anger. Proverbs 29:7 Anger requires an action…even if it is just tuning it away.