All of us become angry at one time or another, but some of us are much better at anger management than others are. Anger in and of itself is not a bad thing. God gave us anger as an emotion because some things should anger us. Some of the senseless killings that make the national news, for instance, really get me wound up. But the Bible says, “Be you angry, and sin not” (Ephesians 4:26). That means we should never allow our anger to drive our actions.
Husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, fellow colleagues, etc. tend to say some of the most hurtful things to each other when they are angry. Who says such words don’t hurt? Sometimes, they wound beyond repair. And what can we say about actions driven by our anger?
Recently, a local resident, thinking his wife had been cheating on her, waited for her to come home, and stabbed her to death right before her little children. Obviously, there is no way to right this wrong. God gave us an emotion called anger but He calls us to respond in ways that please Him.
Whenever we allow anger to get the best of us, we become less effective at doing whatever we should be doing for the Lord, our employer, ourselves, or whoever. Professional athletes know this all too well. They know that if they allow the opponent to get under their skin and cause them to become angry they will lose concentration, and they are headed for defeat.
Also, when we allow anger to take the driver’s seat, rational thinking takes a back seat. I am sure there are tens of thousands of prisoners—maybe more—this very day who regret the fact that they acted out of so much anger that their thinking became compromised, causing them to commit criminal acts. That’s why when we become angry, we should pause and think and ask ourselves: What does the Word of God say about how we should deal with the matter at hand?
I am saying that we must condition ourselves to always be driven by the Word of God and never by raw emotions. This discipline does not come overnight, but if we diligently work at it, it will come. This is the sure-fire way by which we can be angry and don’t sin.
Copyright ©2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.
Husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, fellow colleagues, etc. tend to say some of the most hurtful things to each other when they are angry. Who says such words don’t hurt? Sometimes, they wound beyond repair. And what can we say about actions driven by our anger?
Recently, a local resident, thinking his wife had been cheating on her, waited for her to come home, and stabbed her to death right before her little children. Obviously, there is no way to right this wrong. God gave us an emotion called anger but He calls us to respond in ways that please Him.
Whenever we allow anger to get the best of us, we become less effective at doing whatever we should be doing for the Lord, our employer, ourselves, or whoever. Professional athletes know this all too well. They know that if they allow the opponent to get under their skin and cause them to become angry they will lose concentration, and they are headed for defeat.
Also, when we allow anger to take the driver’s seat, rational thinking takes a back seat. I am sure there are tens of thousands of prisoners—maybe more—this very day who regret the fact that they acted out of so much anger that their thinking became compromised, causing them to commit criminal acts. That’s why when we become angry, we should pause and think and ask ourselves: What does the Word of God say about how we should deal with the matter at hand?
I am saying that we must condition ourselves to always be driven by the Word of God and never by raw emotions. This discipline does not come overnight, but if we diligently work at it, it will come. This is the sure-fire way by which we can be angry and don’t sin.
Copyright ©2012 by Frank King. All rights reserved.
2 comments:
This is a very good post. Anger can cause you do things that you could end up regretting for the rest of your life, and at the same time we do have an emotion called 'Anger'. When I get really mad at something that has been said or done, I remove myself from the situation in order to give myself time to think of my next move.
After the event has been dealt with, it sometimes feels like a broken record going round and round my head for years. Now this is where forgiveness comes in!
It is definitely a good thing for us to put some space between a situation that angers us and how we respond. Unfortunately, some people can't do that, or at least they refuse to do so, and the costs of such indiscretion can be extremely high.
It's interesting that you mentioned forgiveness. Sometimes, whether we like it or not, that's the only way to bring some matters to a close.
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