Page Suggestions: Anchors of Anger, Bible Facts
Three Steps to Victory Over Anger
Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Ephesians 4:26-27
1. Be Angry
Jesus felt anger as He drove the traders from the Temple. We must first allow ourselves to become and feel angry without trying to hide behind a religious mask. The mask does not impress God or make the anger go away.
Once we allow ourselves to be angry without shame or guilt, we can then learn to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy anger. Healthy anger causes one to act in a protective manner. For example, if someone tried to kidnap your child, you would become angry and try to stop the kidnapper. Healthy anger would be the response that would cause you to protect what is yours. The same is true when we feel as if someone we are in relationship with is trying to control or abuse us. Our feelings of anger are healthy feelings that are given by God to prompt a righteous end.
Unhealthy anger promotes destructive behavior. Even when we become angry for good reason, if we don't deal with anger properly, it becomes a dangerous emotion. Unhealthy anger seeks revenge upon its object of wrath. Through the use of verbal assault, emotional harm, financial loss, physical pain or a combination of those, unhealthy anger drives its possessor to inject its venom as deeply and as frequently as possible. This destructive behavior is the reason unhealthy anger is so damaging to relationships.
2. Do Not Sin
Paul cautions us concerning the way we allow those feelings of anger to direct us once we are willing to be honest about our anger. As we admit our anger, whether it is healthy or unhealthy, the next step to freedom is to give our anger to Christ. According to
Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.Hebrews 4 verse 16, we are encouraged to come boldly before God's "throne of grace" with every issue and problem in our lives. We are promised by the writer of Hebrews that we will receive sympathy from Christ, who was tempted in all manner like us, yet without sin. Jesus is ready and willing to give us exactly what we need to deal successfully with every problem in our lives, if we will have faith in Him and His desire to give us grace.
Each one of us is too weak within himself to handle the problems of his life. Much of the destruction in our lives can be traced to an unwillingness to trust God with our problems and pains. If we would just trust Jesus to love us, forgive us, and guide us in every trial, He would.
Sometimes God will direct us to His Word to give us information which will enlighten us about His Will. God's grace for anger means HE HEALS OUR WOUNDED EMOTIONS and replaces the anger with His love. God directs our anger toward loving but truthful confrontation to resolve and redeem a situation. God will take our anger and turn it into SPIRITUAL WARFARE to pray God's will for a person and/or situation that needs passionate intercession.
True submission reveals itself by our willingness to do anything God tells us to do with our feelings, even if what He says goes totally against them.
3. Do Not Let the Sun Go Down on Your Wrath, Nor Give Place to the Devil
The first two steps dealing with anger focus on the "hows" of doing it. The final step deals with the "when."
(1) our anger begins to sink more deeply into our subconscious mind. ONE MUST GET THE ANGER OUT AND DEAL WITH IT BEFORE GOD! If this does not happen, anger will have a negative impact on one's life. People who sleep on their anger, carry with them, as a part of their overall disposition, a noticeable level hostility.
(2) UNRESOLVED ANGER GIVES THE DEVIL ACCESS TO OUR EMOTIONS. The devil knows when one is wrestling with feelings of resentment, bitterness, and even hate. Not only that, he has six thousand years of experience in DIVIDING RELATIONSHIPS AND DESTROYING LIVES!
When we allow anger to settle into our minds and hearts, demonic voices soon begin to fan the flames of resentment into red hot emotions of hatred and revenge. Replaying every negative event which led to our anger, the devil licks our self-pitying wounds as he supplies us with "information" to help us build an airtight case against our enemies. He then has a foothold into our lives and he will use that foothold to CONTROL OUR THOUGHTS, SPEECH, and ACTIONS until we are liars, murders, and accusers, just like him!
I have found, over the years, that people who are geniunely sweet, loving, and loyal all have the same thing in common - they refuse to allow anger to lodge in their minds and hearts. Their sweetness is not due to heredity or stupidity. It is because they treat anger as a toxic chemical. Even if it began as a righteous emotion, they treat the product as something too dangerous to be stored within them. The result produces people with whom others want to be and with whom one can build a good relationship. The devil has no foothold within them that he can use to harm them or those around them.