Anger. It’s a peculiar yet predictable emotion. It begins as a drop of water. An irritant. A frustration. Nothing big, just an aggravation. Someone gets your parking place.

Someone pulls in front of you on the freeway. A waitress is slow and you are in a hurry. The toast burns. Drops of water. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Yet, get enough of these seemingly innocent drops of anger and before long you’ve got a bucket full of rage. Walking revenge.

Blind bitterness. Unharnessed hatred. We trust no one and bare our teeth at anyone who gets near. We become walking time bombs that, given just the right tension and fear, could explode.

Yet, what do we do? We can’t deny that our anger exists. How do we harness it? A good option is found in Luke 23:34. Here, Jesus speaks about the mob that killed him. ‘Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’

Look carefully. It’s as if Jesus considered this bloodthirsty, death-hungry crowd not as murderers, but as victims. It’s as if he saw in their faces not hatred but confusion. It’s as if he regarded them not as a militant mob but, as he put it, as ‘sheep without a shepherd. They don’t know what they are doing.

And when you think about it, they didn’t. They hadn’t the faintest idea what they were doing. They were a stir-crazy mob, mad at something they couldn’t see so they took it out on, of all people, God. But they didn’t know what they were doing.

And for the most part, neither do we. We are still, as much as we hate to admit it, shepherdless sheep. All we know is that we were born out of one eternity and are frighteningly close to another. We play tag with the fuzzy realities of death and pain. We can’t answer our own questions about love and hurt. We can’t solve the riddle of aging. We don’t know how to heal our own bodies or get along with our own mates. We can’t keep ourselves out of war. We can’t even keep ourselves fed.

Paul spoke for humanity when he confessed,

“I do not know what I am doing.” (Romans 7:15, author’s paraphrase.)

Now, I know that doesn’t justify anything. That doesn’t justify hit-and-run drivers or kiddie-porn peddlers or heroin dealers. But it does help explain why they do the miserable things they do.

My point is this: Uncontrolled anger won’t better our world, but sympathetic understanding will. Once we see the world and ourselves for what we are, we can help. Once we understand ourselves we begin to operate not from a posture of anger but of compassion and concern. We look at the world not with bitter frowns but with extended hands. We realize that the lights are out and a lot of people are stumbling in the darkness. So we light candles.

by Max Lucado
used by permission

From: No Wonder They Call Him the Savior
© W Publishing Group, 1986, 2004

To learn more about Max Lucado visit his website at:
https://maxlucado.com/about-max

FURTHER READING

Anger Management

Watch Your Anger – Psalm 37:8

The Danger of Anger

The post They Don’t Know What They Are Doing appeared first on Thoughts About God.

 “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. “Eph. 4:26-27

Even God gets angry! In a conversation with Moses recorded in Exodus 4, “God’s anger burned against Moses.”

Anger shows up in every relationship. Like any other emotion, it can be productive or destructive. In the dynamic with God and Moses, God provided an alternative plan that Moses embraced. The new plan changed Moses’ life and the future of a whole nation.

Consider this scenario: Bill’s mad; he has come home from work to no plan for dinner again. Jan has been home with sick kids all day. She does not have the energy to make dinner. Bill will often be silent, withdraw or express his frustration with harsh words. Jan responds in kind and often feels like a failure.

An alternative plan can be Name It /Solve It.  

Name It: Bill expresses his feeling. “I feel disappointed when I come home hungry and there’s no plan for dinner. That makes me feel unimportant.” Jan’s turn: “I’m so overwhelmed with caring for the kids all day and I find it hard to have the energy to get a meal together. You are important but the kids are taking all my energy. I’m sorry.”

No blaming; just naming the emotion in “I feel” language without a high emotional engagement. Saves energy to focus on the issue.

Solve it: In this case the problem is no dinner ready for a hungry husband and an overwhelmed wife. Bill and Jan decided to plan the menu and do food prep on the weekend with at least an emergency meal in the freezer for unexpected circumstances.

Prayer: God, thank you for your example. Give us the wisdom and strength to use our anger to create solutions that will give us success in our relationship.

Go Deeper:  Are there any lingering feelings of frustration or anger related to unresolved issues that need to be named? Call for a “Name It/Solve it” session. Remember that anger is just an emotion, so use it as a constructive building block in your relationship!

by Mike Woodard
used by Mike Woodard

FURTHER READING

The Danger of Anger – by Charles Stanley

Anger Management – by Kathy Creek

Provoking to What? – Love or Anger –  by Jason Weimer

The post Even God Gets Angry appeared first on Thoughts About God.

 ^“Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,  and do not give the devil an opportunity. “  Ephesians 4:26-27 (NASB)

Anger is a powerful emotion that often causes damage, but it can also be righteous. In Isaiah 64:9, the prophet prays, “Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord.” This verse implies God measures His anger in a way that fits each occasion. Today’s passage teaches that the Lord also expects us to learn to control our anger so it’s appropriate and doesn’t cause us to sin.

There is a line that must not be crossed if we want to guard against sinful anger. It’s obvious that verbal abuse and physical violence should be ruled out, but anger can lead to other sins that are just as deadly. When we see the following characteristics in our life, we’ve crossed the line:

Strife. Proverbs 29:22 says, “An angry man stirs up strife.” Although strife can take many forms, it always pits one person against another.

Bitterness. Psalm 30:5 says that the Lord’s anger is for a moment, and Ephesians 4:26 warns against staying angry overnight. Extended anger festers and eventually leads to bitterness.

Isolation. Whenever anger is nursed, people become separated from each other. Proverbs 16:28 warns against this by pointing out that “a slanderer separates intimate friends.”

Retaliation. Romans 12:19 addresses this directly: “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God.”

What should you do if you recognize any of these in yourself? The first step is to confess it as sin and make a determined effort to turn from it. Every time a bitter thought pops up, repent and release it to the Lord.

By Dr. Charles Stanley
Used by Permission
https://www.intouch.org/

Further Reading

•   God Is…

•  More than a Father

•  Salvation Explained

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