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Anger:
A Battle We Can Win The
Bible says simply: “I can do everything through him who gives me
strength” (Philippians 4:6). With Jesus Christ living inside of us we
have hope: we can gain the upper hand over anger. And what a blessing if
we do. “The
manifestations of the emotions of anger are so numerous that Dr. W.B.
Cannon of Harvard required an entire printed page to merely list
them,” writes Dr. John Schindler in How to Live 365 Days a Year. The external manifestations are
obvious: a red face, bloodshot eyes, stomach muscles squeezing down. But
that is only half the story: “The
entire digestive tract becomes spastic, triggering severe abdominal
pains. The heart rate goes up markedly…the coronary arteries squeeze
down hard enough to produce angina or even a fatal coronary” (pages
25-26). No
wonder the Bible counsels: “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do
not fret—it leads only to evil” (Proverbs 37:8). Yet we say:
“Don’t fret—in this day and age? Surely the Bible is kidding
us.” But wait! There’s more: “Do not be quickly provoked in your
spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9). We
reply: “But you don’t understand. If you lived where I did would
you’d be stirred up to.” And
the Bible replies, calmly, soothingly, like a mother’s voice: “A
patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays
folly” (proverbs 14:29). In
spite of these excellent prescriptions from God’s words millions of us
get entangled with anger every day. Even our slang is dangerous: “She
makes me sick!”” He burns me up!” “I really blew my stack” and
the coup de grace: “I could
kill him!” Overt
Anger/Latent Anger This
is serious, for bitter and hasty words are often emotional preparation
for the most fearsome acts. Jesus had to severely correct two of his own
disciples for a vindictive hot-tempered attitude towards a despised
ethnic group (Luke 9:51-56). Of
course, one of today’s misconceptions is that all anger is wrong. It
isn’t. Jesus himself got angry. He was angry when he cleared the money
changers from the Temple (John 2:13-17). He was angry at the stubborn
Pharisees in Matthew 23. But this was controlled anger. “In your anger
do not sin,” Paul taught “Do not let the sun go down while you are
still angry (Ephesians 4:26). We
can be sure that Jesus radiated this kind of concerned, loving,
solution-oriented anger. But
most anger we see about us today is sin. People blowing up after the
drip-drop-drip of petty annoyances. Husbands retaliating at wives.
Bosses “dumping” on their subordinates. That is overt anger, easy to
spot and—hopefully—possible to avoid. But
there is another kind of anger that comes from slow, simmering attitudes
deep inside. This is latent anger and resentment, a festering kind of
attitude that may take a long time coming to the surface. This is why
Judas Iscariot and his critical, resentful spirit was not remotely
suspected by the other disciples of harbouring bitterness or why a man
in our time, passed over for promotion, murdered four people “in cold
blood.” Anger
is emotional preparation for murder. This is what Jesus labelled it so
seriously (Matthew 5:22). The consequences can be hidden. “Depression
at every phase of its development,” wrote neurologist Mortimer Ostow,
“includes a component of anger, whether visible or invisible.” We
all need help in navigating our way through the stresses and strains of
a world tearing at us, a world seemingly designed to make us angry. Here
are five principles that can help. First,
pray fervently when we see bitterness and resentment rising up inside
us. We must thank God for showing to us our wrong thought
patterns. Sin begins in the mind. That’s why we Christians have the
noble goal to “take captive every thought” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
That is a lifelong task. God the Holy Spirit will help us when we turn
to him for help. Second,
keep the big picture of human existence in mind. It’s always good to
ask: Will this really matter 100
years from now? And what if our adversary died and we had a grudge
on our conscience. What then? It is good advice Peter gave: “Whoever
would love life and see good days…must turn from evil and do what is
good, he must seek peace and pursue it” (2 Peter 3:10-11). Third,
try sincerely to see the other person’s point of view. This is
empathy, and oh, how rare today! Consider our Great Example. What did it
take to say “Father forgive them, for they do not known what they are
doing” (Luke 23:34) while they drove nails through his hands and feet.
Meditating on this can leave us properly humbled, allow the fresh
breezes of humility to cool the fires of anger. Fourth,
pray for your adversary. Nothing is more diametrically opposite to the
human spirit, is it? But it is our human spirit of anger and hostility
that often gets us in to so many scrapes. The apostle Paul wrote about
“the coals of hot fire treatment.” Read it in Romans 12:20. Perhaps
a simple card, a note, a sincere apology, a small gift or a simple
resolve to treat the would-be opponent as a friend rather than an enemy
could make all the difference in the world. Christians do not retaliate
in kind. They are learning to walk the hard and stony path that replaces
evil with good. This is tough but Jesus never said it would be easy; he
did offer help along the way (Matthew 11:28). Fifth,
keep our spiritual vision clear. In the midst of severe tensions and
conflicts, when we are tempted to respond in kind we must remember: God
is the God of justice. He doesn’t expect us to police the universe for
him. Do we really believe that those who violate principles of loving
relationships can violate them with impunity? No. God is on his throne
and he has a way of evening things up. The patriarch Joseph was a living
example of this when he ended up with life and death power over the very
brothers who had sold him into slavery (Genesis 42:1-9). One
experienced Christian put it this way: “Truth forever on the scaffold, God
is our ultimate Shelter against the tides of anger that threaten to
engulf us. With that assurance we can win. We can win over anger.
A
Few Angry Men...And Women The
Bible is full of case histories that vividly sketch behaviour patterns
to avoid:
That’s
quite a collection. They are recorded to remind us that anger is a
serious matter before both God and man |