Anger Unleashed

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past ... 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

For many years I was under the misunderstanding that I was a good person if I didn’t incite others to anger.  This meant that I was always the one who caved under pressure.  Angry people scared me so I always tried to be the peace maker.  The problem with this is that people like me have a tendency to hold everything in and not confront others when their anger is out of line.    

The way this works in a person like me is that the anger builds up and builds up until you are like Mount Vesuvius. The results aren’t pretty.  What I learned over the years is that it can be as much of a sin to hold things in as it is to blow up all over other people.

The sin of anger can destroy more relationships and ruin families, children and spouses.  We have become a society of angry people.  We cut each other off in traffic, we yell at our children.  We become the very opposite of what God intended us to be.

I read where a psychologist once said that everyone has a bucket of anger in them and once it gets full you need to let it out.  In reality if we allow anger to get a foothold in our life we basically build a factory where more and more anger is produced.  Once we are in full production we also manufacture other things like bitterness, unforgiveness and hatred. If anger weren’t important God wouldn’t have put 230 verses in the Bible dealing with it. 

How we handle anger can make the difference in us loving one another or living in hate and bitterness.  When anger takes up residence your house will fall; it is just a matter of time.  

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I was guilty at one time of not speaking in truth to others for fear of the anger it would produce, but the side effect of that is I became angry inside with unresolved issues and resentment.  Thank you for opening my eyes to my sin and helping me step by step to be what You call me to be.  I am not there yet, but I will keep trying.  You forgave me, how can I not forgive someone else. Thank you for your mercy on me.

Scripture:  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.  Ephesians 4:30-32