Anger is usually viewed as negative and destructive. It can be, and it often is used that way. Yet, God’s Word makes it clear that God gave us anger for positive reasons (Ephesians 4:26):
1. It helps us to defend our self in a crisis.
2. It takes away many of the “masks” we hide behind, and it allows us to honestly communicate how we really feel.
3. It gives us the adrenalin to run away to safety or to stand our ground and fight with supernatural strength.
We often use anger to protect our self, even from imagined slights and aggression. Yet, as a negative emotion, it is given to us by God for very specific purposes. He never meant for us to store it inside, to use it indiscriminately, or to vent it out on our self or on other people in harmful ways.
This is because there are destructive results of anger as well. Anger turned inward, or suppressed in our subconscious mind, will eventually poison our body, soul and spirit. Anger causes us to blame others for our own shortcomings, to puff up our self-righteous attitude, and to rip others to shreds at the least provocation.
Anger at others is often linked to anger at our self too. We continually reproach our self with unkind words and criticism – many of these words which others used on us as well. The intensity of our anger may even grow stronger over the years into a secret hatred or disapproval of our self and others.
Anger at our self erodes our self-esteem and causes us to doubt our abilities in certain areas as it diminishes the triumphs that we should be celebrating. Listening to the thoughts in our mind that accompany feelings of anger is very helpful in discerning why the emotion is in us.
Are we reproaching our self, bitter toward someone who hurt us, drowning in hopelessness, sinking into a melancholy attitude, etc.? As we allow our self the “luxury” of fully feeling the underlying negative emotions that are actually causing our anger, we help our body and soul to affirm our true feelings, which allows them to decrease and for anger to dissipate.
Prayer:
Father God, Your Word cautions us not to allow negative emotions to seethe in our soul overnight (Ephesians 4:26). You teach us that our mind is the battle ground between Your Holy Spirit and our fleshly desires, as well as demonic influences and lies. Remind us that, even overnight, a small slight can turn into a mighty mountain that makes it impossible for us to move on in our journey into Your perfection.
Anger is an intimidating roadblock that prevents us from allowing Your Spirit to sanctify our soul in that particular area. We may be attempting to deal with our issues with our human understanding, rather than waiting on You to draw us out of the pit of destruction and to set our feet on the Rock of Jesus Christ (Psalm 40:1-2). Thank You that Jesus is our firm foundation upon which to trust our life. We look to You to help us to heal from the wounds causing our anger.
Thought for the Day:
Anger may cause us to adopt a critical and disapproving attitude toward our self, as well as certain other people in our life, which is way out of a reasonable proportion; instead, we can heed the advice of God’s Word and not allow hatred to grow in our heart toward our self or others, and to resist the urge to bear a grudge or avenge behavior perpetrated upon us; we can also learn from God’s Spirit to forgive, to love others, and to love our self as Jesus loves us.
- Leviticus 19:17-18; 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
