Anger

Anger

Anger is one of the worst traits in a person’s life, It has the ability to destroy any person, but also affects friends, family and anybody that they come in contact with. If your friend gets angry with you, you will want to do something for him or her so one will not be angry with you. One may be good about masking anger at times, but if one does not get ones way, they will not have to say a word, a person’s glare and that other person will know that what they said is not what they wanted to hear. It is not your fault. They will let you know without saying anything that as a friend they will have few boundaries, but you will be expected to follow some rules if you want to be friends with this person. In other words, you look past their short comings and not remark on them and everything will be okay. They will rebel against mother and father and will defy any person that tries to exert authority. A person will use an outburst of anger to try and get one’s way. Many times it will make no difference what one does, the anger is still there. Also lying and anger can go hand in hand. If one gets caught in a lie, they get angry to try and throw the other person off of the lie. Then if you doubt them, they tell you another lie to get you off of the first lie. It is like being on an escalator, up and down, more frequent than you want.

Rebellion is a subtle form of anger. Rebellion comes out of the lack of authority in one’s life. Everybody needs authority in life. This is how we become familiar with rules and regulations. As a child and your mother and father were always giving in to you, your adult life will be difficult because you will meet people who do not care what you think or believe. It will upset you that it doesn’t make any difference if you get mad or not. As a believer, our authority is Jesus Christ and the Word of God, that sets the boundaries in a Christian’s life of right and wrong, what can be done and what can’t. It is what Christ says that counts. It is what we do in return that shows how close we follow Christ. The Ten Commandments are a good place to start. The New Testament starts refining definitions closer, and some further out. But always within the truth of Jesus Christ and the Bible. If one can look back to the older generation where there were large families, the older ones would tell the younger what to do. The younger learned that authority not only came from parents, but older siblings. My father had 13 brothers and sisters, he can remember being told what to do by older brothers and sisters. They lived on a large farm in N.W. Iowa . The parents needed all of their children to do their share of the work for the whole family. I am from a family of 5 siblings, just one cow, rabbits, chickens, and a garden, I was the youngest and had a schedule of things to do, but often changed upon what the older sibling did not want to do, and without asking me. Sometimes we shared in the duties to make things go faster. Learning this way is a very good non authoritarian way to learn. I had a friend that had three sisters, he told me once that if he didn’t want to do something, he would agree with them, and go on his way without doing anything. He said his sisters eventually would do what they had asked him to do. This is rebellion. This is silent rebellion. When one is introduced to authority in his teens or later years, rebellion is against everybody, and their actions are just try and make me do it. Many schools have had a major effect on family relations. Many schools have a class on your personal value system. In this class they are taught that you do not have to believe in any of your parents values, faith or rules. You can make up your own value system, have your own rules, own beliefs, that you want to live by. Fewer and fewer young adults believe that there is a just system and all the old rules should be replaced by their own rules that have no consequences for them. Now you know where you see the lawless students on college campuses rioting, burning and breaking things with no consequences. Now do you see where society is going, mob rule, only their rules count. What does the rules of a few lead to? Socialism, just as you see it going on today. Young people in restaurants demonstrating against authority figures, public forums interrupted because they disagree. It is a power struggle for them. They are right and you are wrong. The other aspect of this is that this person is likely to have many jobs because at a moment, any authority is displayed, they quit or are fired because of their rebellion and anger against authority. If that person would just think for a moment, there are traffic laws, school starts at a specific time, cities, counties and states make laws that we must follow. There are public norms, companies have rules for employees to follow so the work environment is healthy to work in. Look at the anger of employees that are dismissed, and then they go home get a gun and come back and shoot and kill people that did the injustice to them. We are expected to follow these rules and laws. We have been given a mind to think with, God gave us the ability to think and reason. Anger is a controllable emotion. Once we have learned that we can control other people by it, we use it until the consequences are so great that one is excluded from many functions and activities. Then we change when people will not put up with it any longer. The opposite of rebellion is obedience. Obedience to God through His Word. We can only know this by reading His Word. Another word I would like you to be familiar with is disappointment. This can lead to another and different kind of anger. This is where a person hopes that something will happen in a certain way, or wishing another person or a group to acknowledge you in some way. If it ever happens your response is sadness that turns to anger. This could be a inter-personal relationship that you were waiting for the other person to notice what you had done, or flowers, you wanted them to notice how you might have changed or looked on a special occasion something another person did not do that you wanted to have happen, but it didn’t. One can get angry because of this. Many times that person or persons didn’t even know what you wanted them to notice, or acknowledge about you. Same kind of anger with the same results. To me there is another form of anger that is just as deadly. It is what I call flash anger. It is just as deadly, because one gets angry for only seconds, but it has the same effects. It still leaves the other person bewildered of what happened. How a person in one second is normal, the next ten seconds have a change in tone of voice to react and strike the other person for what they have said or done, then the eleventh second their tone and actions are back to normal. What would you think If this happened to you. Then that person continues on like nothing happened. One makes an excuse that says it is better than staying angry for a length of time. Really, how about the other person feelings, hears the change, but does not understand what has happened. One reaction is what was that for, or what did I do to create a response like this. It is a made up offense, an anger to throw the other person off. Flash anger literally lasted several seconds. It does have a negative effect just like any other anger has. Leaving the person feeling what is wrong with them? When in fact, the angry person is the one with the problem, that they may not understand.

As a believer in Christ Jesus, we learn by His Word that His authority is good if we follow it. through our obedience, He also tells us that He has absolute authority, nobody can change it. Without an absolute no, you have absolutely yes, to anything. No, means that I am not going to do that any more. How do we obtain an absolute life. We can not get it from the world, because the world is opposed to God because these people do not want one with a moral authority to rule over them. It will impede their life or lifestyle and how they live. How do we know what the absolutes are. We only get them from God’s word. If there are actions or words spoken by you, that you want to change, write down 2 absolutes you do not want to do anymore and keep them with you, in your pocket. This will help to keep them in the frontal lob of your brain, so when one of these 2 items comes up, you can tell yourself, no, no, no.

It is Jesus Christ and the Word of God that sets the boundaries in a Christian’s life of right and wrong, what should be done and what can’t. It is what Christ says that counts. It is what we do in return that counts even more. Our very own actions eventually will tell other people what kind of Christian that we are. If we go against God’s Word, then we do not believe God, and use His Word as pretext to use His Word when it fits us.

The Ten Commandments have been around for about 3,400 years. They are the only absolutes that the Christian has to go by. The Ten Commandments were written in the Bible about 1445 BC. God has never put them on hold, or suspended any of them. They are as relevant today as they were in 1445BC. Remember Christ said that He did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it.

In the Bible, in the book of Genesis, brothers Cain and Abel were bringing their offerings to God, God accepted Abel’s but did not accept Cains. God saw Cains anger and his countenance fell. And said in Genesis 4:6-7 Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you have to master it. And Cain told Abel his brother, and it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. When one desires something, they will do just about anything to get it. They will work longer hours at their job to get the money to pay for it. Or one will let friends pay for it because they like him. One may also disregard,overlook, pass by what the wrong is because we desire something so much we are wanting, not see what is going on right in front of them. If something is going wrong, I’m not the one that is doing it. So it is ok. Crouching is the next word. It brought to my mind the scripture in Isaiah 5:29 Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions; it growls as it seizes the prey, and carries it off with no one to deliver it.

Anger is the trap to enslave and entrap one for their own destruction. Anger is like a cocoon in us, it is from satan working against God and us to protect the anger inside us. Except God does not want this anger in us. That is demeaning yourself and others. The only way anyone ever becomes totally free from anger is with the Holy Spirit that lives inside a believer. That the Holy Spirit helps point us to Jesus. If we will do three things to transform our lives. Read your bible daily, make a constant effort to Pray and talk to Jesus when ever one gets a chance. As you pray to Jesus, that the Spirit that lives inside you will bring to remembrance what you have read and prayed about. The Spirit will guide us in all truth to help us change.

Before a lion goes after its prey, they crouch in the tall grass until they pick the one they want to catch, their attention is not on the herd but that one animal. When they pounce on it and get it down on the ground they sometimes growl when another lion comes up to eat. They tear into the flesh to eat and growl to protect the kill. That is what God means when He says that you have to master your anger, He wants the same focus and intensity in protecting yourself from anger. You are not to look at what other people are doing, Jesus wants us to stay away from other people that could draw us into trouble or implicate us in any scheme. If we know it is wrong, it is wrong, James 4:17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does it not do it, to him it is sin. We have to learn some people may talk about us, It is hard to pay them no attention, do what is right, but that is what we have to do. Pay them no attention. How soon do we want to be done with this part of our life? Do what we are supposed to do. Do not try and sit on both sides the fence. God wants us to attack our anger in the same way as the lioness attacks her prey. When we do not attack our anger in this manner we will be willing to live with the anger and struggle with its consequences. Another way to look at this is if you do not master your anger, your anger will be your master. We are strong enough and know enough to stay out of trouble. Don’t let what other people say about you or what they want us to do wrong, or suck you into doing something wrong, just remember, we are the sons and daughters of Christ, that alone should guide us into righteousness and calmness of your soul. Christ wants us to be content with what we have and let Him provide our needs as we need them. Philippians 4:11-12 Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. Sometimes it is better to be in need than in prosperity, in need you are looking at the Lord Jesus for your needs, and in prosperity, one is looking for another way to live a better life.
Ecclesiastes 7:9 Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools. Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but harsh words stirs up anger. Proverbs 16:32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city. Proverbs 15:32-33 He who neglects discipline despises himself, but he who listens to reproof acquires understanding. 33. The fear of the Lord is instruction for wisdom, and before honor comes humility.
Psalm 30:5 For His anger is but for the moment, His favor is for a lifetime; weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning. This is what Christ does for us. Which would you rather be known for? Determine in your heart, and mind to do it, then do not waiver in yourself, be steadfast. Your help will come from above to help you through any and every situation that comes your way. Attack your problems, do not shy away from them, take control of your faith, let Christ be your teacher and guide, and anger will be the by word. Will you ever get mad, yes but you will be able to handle it in a different way, that is not destructive, but constructive.

Would you like to accept Jesus today? You can do this just by bowing your head and ask Jesus into your life, to help guide you, and seek His wisdom to help you through the changes of becoming a believer in Christ. This will not be easy, but God says He will never leave you or forsake you, or would you like to rededicate your life to Him who first saved you?