Good and Angry

Anger is like a river. A river controlled can generate enough electricity to power an entire city. But if allowed to overflow its banks, it can become a raging flood that destroys everything in its path. As surely as a river can be controlled, so can your temper. You can control your temper if you really want to, you just have to want too. Pastor James Merritt

Think of the last time you got angry. How did you respond to those around you? Did you say things you shouldn’t have or hurt your witness to another person? Sometimes we can really destroy our witness when we get angry. Is all anger sin? Is it possible to control my anger and express it? In the “church” (remember that the “church” is us not the building!) today we lose a lot of our credibility with those in our community, the unchurched and the unsaved because of our witness to them when we get angry.
A lady once came to Billy Sunday and tried to rationalize her angry outbursts. “There’s nothing wrong with losing my temper,” She said, “I blow up, and then it’s all over.” So does a shotgun,” Sunday replied, “and look at the damage it leaves behind!”

Getting angry can sometimes be like leaping into a wonderfully responsive sports car, gunning the motor, taking off at high speed and then discovering the brakes are out of order. We need to learn to control our anger.

James, the brother of Jesus, writes, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.  Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.” (James 1:19-20)

Anger defined - a God given emotional response usually tied to a goal, value or expectation. It usually ignites when we feel invalidated or rejected. It can
be expressed by exploding anger and imploding. A God given emotion.

One pastor says this about anger:  “Anger is a divinely implanted emotion. Closely allied to our instinct for right, it is designed to be used for constructive spiritual purposes. The person who cannot feel anger at evil is a person who lacks enthusiasm for good. If you cannot hate wrong, it is very questionable whether you really love righteousness. To not express anger is to not be human."

The answer isn’t to repress it, but to express it assertively. Even God gets angry. When Christ was in the temple turning over tables, He didn’t do it with a smile on His face. When He called the Pharisees a bunch of white washed tombs and a pit of vipers--
He wasn’t just trying to be politically correct. He was mad. It says though that God is slow to anger (“But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry”. Psalm 86:15). God’s anger lasts a moment, while his favor lasts a lifetime. King Solomon said “Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back.” (Proverbs 29:11)

Expressing Anger in a Godly Life

1. Admit we have a problem. “… if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (1 John 1:9). We

can’t receive what God wants to give us until we accept the fact that our holding on to some things God wants us to give up. Our problem is that we come to a point in our Christian life where we become comfortable and we stop surrendering all things to
Christ. Surrender means that we have given God permission to change, mold or to rid our life of anything that hinders us from becoming all that He wants us to be. We need to surrender our anger to God and allow Him to change us.

We have so many baby Christians in the church today because we came to a point of comfort and stopped allowing God to work in our lives. We are not totally surrendered to Him. “Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back -- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.” Frederick Buechner.

2. Ask God to set a guard over our tongues. ” And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.” (James 3:6) In our scripture it says that we should be "slow to speak", that means that we should be careful and thoughtful about what we say, especially when we are angry. Realize that the devil wants us to explode and lose our credibility. He wants us to lose our witness with the lost and Believers around us. We should mourn over the fact that we may have already lost our credibility with some people.

3. Anticipate problem areas. Consider how we can best prepare. What situations can we avoid? What people or situations do we struggle to control our temper in.

4. Commit any situation where we are beginning to feel anger to God. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus  “don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry..”  (Ephesians 4:26) Give God control.

5. Learn from past mistakes. Treasure hunt those bad experiences. Seek to learn what good things we can learn from the negative and then let it go. God wants us to learn from past mistakes. 

6. Learn to attack problems not people. We can deal assertively with others without disregard to others feelings. Christ got angry, but did so in a way that ultimately expressed value in others. Name calling doesn’t belong in a Believer’s household. Calling another person “stupid” or treating another person with disrespect shouldn’t even be a part of our lives.

There is a Chinese proverb that says “The fastest horse cannot catch a word spoken in anger.” Just like if we shook up a can of soda and then opened it. It would spray everywhere. It would be almost impossible to put the soda back in the can after it has sprayed all over the furniture and on my face. It’s also impossible to take back those angry words once they come out of our mouths. 

7. Practice the presence of Christ. Be aware that God is present and hears every word. Christ is not only present with us when we are in church building. He is present in our household and with us at work. He hears our every idle word and knows our every thought. If we realize this, we may choose our words differently and work to let the Holy Spirit control our thoughts.


What we need to do is to surrender our temper to God. Don’t believe the lie that we can’t change. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13) It’s a lie the devil would like us to believe that we can’t change and there’s no point in trying. Yes, we can change. God can change us from the inside out. We just have to give Him permission and surrender it to Him.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.  Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31-32)