God’s Word is the lamp lighting our pathway for us.
If we follow His ways we can defeat using anger in a wrong way.
If you read the love Chapter (I Corinthians 13) you will see that love is patient, kind, and it rejoices in the truth. Love is not proud, boastful, envious, rude, self-seeking, easily angered, and love does not delight in evil.
We live in a world where some people try to manipulate by using angry words or by thrashing out in anger. This kind of anger is not from God.
God is love. I’m not saying there won’t be times while you walk on this earth that you won’t get angry. Anger is also an emotion that we have when we have been wronged or when someone we know has been wronged. Anger can be used in a good way to get people to stand up for what is right.
What if no one would have rescued the Jewish people? What if hearts were so hardened that people like Corrie & Betsy Ten Boom wouldn’t have reached out to save people that were being abused. What if our courts didn’t go after criminals? What if the sex offenders, thieves, and murderers were not held accountable for their dastardly deeds? What if no one had something rise up from within them telling them that something is wrong and they should do all they can to make things better? Anger has a purpose. Jesus turned over tables in the temple courts saying they were making His Father’s house a den of thieves. I am told that is a righteous anger.
In Genesis 6:5-7 we read, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”
The Lord was grieved that man started doing things that were evil. We know many times it looks like the days of Noah around us.
You know there are people that get angry at other people just because they don’t say what they want them to say or do what they want them to do. You know someone is evil if they angrily demand their own way all the time. When a person gets angry just because they don’t get exactly what they want that is not considered healthy anger.
I remember getting an angry email from one person because I didn’t start an early morning email message saying, “Good Morning” before I wrote to them asking a question concerning something they mentioned to me the evening before. I feel sure the good morning wasn’t what really got the person’s goat but it was mentioned in anger and I was told how rude I was for not saying what they expected me to say in my email message. Now that’s a form of someone trying to control your actions and your words. If you don’t do what they want when they want they get angry. Another person got angry because I sometimes write emails without placing a name at the beginning of the email. I thought, “Come on now, we all know who the email is being sent to –>your email address is who the message is sent to & my email address is who the message is sent from.” I can hear a friend of mine saying, “People need to get a life.” There is more joy in life if people don’t stress over the little things.
Does it really matter which side of the sink your dishes are washed in? Does it matter if they are washed in the dishwasher or washed by hand? Does everyone have to eat everything on their plate even if they don’t like it all & even if they are already full?
Some people make rules that cause them to get very angry if their own little rules are not followed. What about picking on someone because of the words they choose to use when they say something? Oh. . . or the tomato tomato thing. You know I say, “Tomato” & you say, “Tomato” forget all about the fact that it is spelled exactly the same way while you consider the fact that some people will want to argue over how a word is spoken even if everyone listening already knows what you are talking about.
It makes me want to just say this, “PICKY PICKY PICKY!” We are human and sometimes we are too picky. Pickiness causes anger. Nitpicking causes people to stop showing love the way they are supposed to. Let’s face it the wrong kind of anger comes forth many times just because someone isn’t getting their own way.
Listen people, when we all get to heaven it isn’t going to matter which side of the sink you washed your dishes in. It isn’t going to mean a hill of beans whether or not the bill was paid by driving it to the place where it had to be paid or whether you used online banking or the regular snail mail service to send that payment out.
What is going to matter is how you used your words (every idle word spoken) and what you did to fellow people on this earth. God is going to judge everyone. the goats will be separated from the sheep.
When you see an angry person think of what it says here in Proverbs 22:24-25,“Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.”
If you have a problem with anger take a look at this verse in James 1:9-20, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”
Walking around with an angry spirit trying to control others with your anger is clearly wrong. If you can’t control yourself then you are not walking with the fruit of the spirit in your life. I continue to think it is so odd that an angry person can’t control themselves yet they try so very hard to control others with their angry words or actions.
It is alright to steer clear of the angry man. It is probably in your best interest to get far away from anyone that shows the wrong kind of anger. They are not good people to be around. It is not healthy for children to see their behavior. It is not a healthy environment to be in when someone is letting their emotions fly.
Jesus walked away from people that were out to harm him. He did not stand around and take abuse until the appointed time came for him to willingly suffer and die for our sins. Everyone that knows the Bible knows He did not have to allow himself to be bruised and beaten for us. He freely gave His own life so we could be redeemed.
Read the Scriptures and let God’s Word show you how to stay away from angry people in any way that you can. Read it for yourself and you will see that God wants His people to speak up for righteousness. God’s Word says that those who love the Lord hate evil. It is okay to Hate it when a 35 year old man molests a teenager. You don’t have to hate the person/sex offender. It is alright to hate the terrible act they did. When you hear another person has been murdered you can feel sorrow for the family members who lost their loved one at the hands of a callous-hearted murderer who probably tried to hide his crime like Cain did. You can hate it when a strong man that has been trained for war kills a child or a woman. You can hate that crime. These criminals have done wrong. They should be punished. The least they can do is step up to the plate and tell all that happened and why it happened instead of hiding out as if no one knows what they have done. The worst kind of criminal of all is the one that rationalizes blaming everyone else for the crime he committed. You can tell I hate crime. Even though I hate the crimes I have learned that the criminal is to be pitied for they are in a sorry state of mind indeed. Their souls are hardened and selfish. May God have mercy on their souls. May their spirit be saved on the day of the Lord.
Defeating anger is able to be done if we continue to recall that we cannot control another person. We can’t show love and force another person to do everything we want just the way we want it done. Defeating anger is also choosing to pray for those murderers and sex offenders even though the acts they have done have caused great harm to other people. Defeating anger also means walking in forgiveness remembering the words of Jesus when he hung on the cross. He said it best when he said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
When you read God’s Word you will find that it is completely okay to walk away from the angry people in your life every time you have an opportunity to get free of them. They have not earned the right to have loving tender hearted people around them if they choose to lash out at others as if everyone must take their abusive words and actions.
You will also see that you should follow God’s ways. God does not want you to be too picky and He does not want you to be the one that lashes out at other people when you are not getting your own way.
It will probably help keep your blood pressure down if you are slow to get angry. More importantly you will be able to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only if you can be led by God’s Holy Spirit. Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. You will be like a well fortified city if you use self-control.