Monday, February 20, 2006

Your Thoughts on Anger


I am changing thoughts on this thread but will respond all this week to the many questions regarding fasting in last weeks post! Have fun! Pick one!

I wonder if anger and confrontation motivates me…
How many of you get angry? Come on. I am like you and I have anger….

I was yakking on my cell phone while driving this week… Came to a four way stop sign and made my stop, proceeded through at my turn only to have a blue car blow her stop sign and then having the audacity to give me a one fingered ‘hello’ salute like it was my fault. Oh I was choked.

Anger…
How many of you on a regular basis get angry?
How many of you on a regular basis get angry and you scare yourself?
How many of you on a regular basis get angry and say things and stop yourself later and say “I just didn’t say that did I?”
Or how many of you have gotten so angry that you have broken things and you sat there with the broken thing in hand and said “I just didn’t break that did I?”

You can find somebody totally depressed, exhausted and stressed and if you give them something to be angry about there will be an explosion of unprecedented proportions. Anger produces a rocket fuel of energy, it produces unreal adrenaline and stimulus. We scare ourselves with the power that goes through us when we are angry. There is a nuclear force that resides in you and I and it is called anger. When we find ourselves angry we can leap a tall building with a single bound, right?

Jesus had a confrontation with the religious rulers, the Pharisees…in Mark 3. Here we have a Jesus and a GOD who gets angry yet, in Christianity, causeless, excessive, or protracted anger is considered sinful. (Matthew 5:22; Col. 3:8), and unbridled wrath is one of the 7 Deadly Sins. The Bible warns "do not let the sun go down on your anger" (Eph. 4:26), that is, do not let feelings of anger last so long as to become sinful. There is, however, what is commonly referred to as "righteous anger," or divine anger that is found throughout the scriptures. We find a GOD who gets angry at certain things. So in our efforts to communicate to people that our GOD is one of love we conveniently leave out the aspects of the fact that our GOD is also one or wrath, anger and judgment. But if you have a God of love will you have a GOD who gets angry and why?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires." - James 1:19-20 ESV

The way I read this verse doesn't leave much room for my anger whatsoever. I wouldn't go so far as to say that all of man's anger is sin, but James makes it clear that our anger does not produce righteousness. So what do we do with anger then? Cast it onto Jesus, because he cares for us, and is more than capable of absorbing our most intense emotions including anger.

What will sever the root of anger? By grace, revelation that God is in control of all things, ordains all things that happen, and works with purpose in everything he does, (a good purpose for those who love Him). Are you hurt? God is behind it. Though the people who hurt you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. Are you smitten by disease? God is behind it. He is altogether righteous, and in Him is no sin. Yet in His wisdom he wields the ungodly like a staff.

"Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;" -Isaiah 10:5-7

The evil Assyrians did not intend for God to use them as his rod of anger, not have the staff of God's fury put in their hands. Regardless of their intentions, God used them as he would, because He is God and owns them.

The King of Assyria then makes his boast in verse 13:

"When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he[a] will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding."" - Isaiah 10:12-13

He is then rebuked by God in verse 15, who responds with a stunning passage about the sovereignty of God.

"Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire.

The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day. The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the LORD will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away. The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down."
- Isaiah 10:15-19

Then check out WHY this has all happened in verse 20.

"In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth." - Isaiah 10:20-23

The whole point of God sending the Assyrians against Israel was to cause them to lean on Him!

So where is the personal application in this?

First, realise that when you are angry at someone or something for wronging you, your anger is really at God. Why? Because he caused it to happen.

Second, submit to God - that He knows the best way to mature you and give you the most joy possible.

Third, be thankful to God for his provision of this trial or problem, because the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Being thankful in pain and anger means trusting 100% on God, and 0% on ourselves, and that IS where we are called to be. (To our immense joy!)

Well, this was a very long post... oops. I leave you with the end of that section of Isaiah. Blessings!

"Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: "O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.""

We're very safe.

Anonymous said...

scotty b: I've noticed that drivers who hardly go a day without someone "pissing them off" and can't figure out why, are usually aggressive drivers who have little concern for the rest of the population on the road. I've noticed that they don't usually notice all the chaos they have left in their wake, as they careen through town, lost in their world of blaming all the "stupid drivers that are out there". I could almost guess your age - at most early 20's... possibly still a teen. Don't worry... if you survive (which I pray you will), you may learn one day, and suddenly the streets will become a much more friendly place. And there won't be as much to get angry about.

SoulPastor said...

Thoughts?
Yes, I have a few.
Like most, I work for a living! And have to prioritize my life...just can't do it all! And when the pressures of the job come on, I yield to those first….it has been a people week for me, so I hope you all understand!

Anonymous said...

I can relate to SB about being mad at many stupid drivers and I used to finger many people in my teen years while driving. But I stopped and let me tell you why. I was 17 and asked to help usher in the balcony of the church. We were supposed to be there 15 minutes early, I of course was running late. These idiots in front of me were driving slow in the fast lane so when I got up beside them, I showed them my middle finger, they weren't looking so I honked so they would look and then sped off. Parked my car and as I was walking into the church I saw the same car pull into the church parking lot. I ran inside and upstairs to my post. Guess who came walking up the stairs into the balcony, yep those kind people were visiting our church. I shook their hands, welcomed them with a smile on face, but I was ashamed and embarassed of what I had done. These people never came back to our church. Some people may wonder why but I never did.
As far as freaking out on someone when they hit your car. Don't!! My wife hit a car recently in a parking lot while I was away on a business trip, all 4 kids were in the car. Thankfully the person she hit showed a ton of class and calmly exchanged numbers and details. If that person had gone off in their anger it would have devastated my wife who felt terrible already. Just because you feel anger doesn't give you the right to spew it out. If you can't manage your anger take a class.

kenny said...

Anger...well, after supressing anger for nearly 30 years, it is bound to come out in ways that are not too contructive. The last 8 years I have expressed and suppressed anger. Mostly to people I love and to a few unknown strangers...who couldn't seem to drive like I wanted them to drive. Or I would see people go out of their way to be mean and nasty and that really bite it for me, the vigilant inside took over, I was going to make them pay!
Again, as I have hear in other posts, God is a really merciful God. Wow, have to say a lot of my anger has subsided. Someone gave me a good quote today..."you do not know yourself if you do not know Christ"
That is an intersting thought. How did Christ conduct his life? He got mad...but at what? What was his main message to us? What it boils down to I think is that we are to love our friends and love our enemies and love ourselves. Basically, love everyone. I think that is pretty powerful in and of itself.

Proverbs 17:9 love covers over all wrongs.

Romans 14:19 Let us therfore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

1Peter 4:8 Above all love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.


Okay...there is a long list I could write. I guess in a world so crazy with anger, hate, racism, I think it is about time we take a look inside...be brutally honest with ourselves at what we need to lay down. If that is anger, we lay it down. We lay it down at the cross. That may mean we have to continually lay it down. That may seem like a pat answer, but for myself...I recognized that I had pent up years of disappointment, hurt, bitterness, sadness and it turned to anger. So in my journey of healing, it has been uncovering those root issues to why I was so angry that has brought about HUGE changes. Plus...the fact that God is gracious, merciful and loves the heck out of me.