anger Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Daily Thoughts about God

“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.
Ephesians 4:26-27

A friend was going through a difficult circumstance and I was always very careful about how I approached the sensitive subject with her. She still had a lot of anger and I was giving her space and room to work through it.

After many months had gone by I asked her if she was experiencing God’s nearness, His presence, His comfort helping her through the process of coping with what had happened.

She quickly said, “No, not at all.”

I was silent. I was silent because I was surprised.

That didn’t sound like how God is.

He is our God of comfort.
He is near.
He is with us.
He understands what we are going through.
He is our helper.

I realize there are extreme circumstances when anger is where we live for a while and we can hardly even deal with God at that point. But this was not that kind of circumstance.

In her answer I still heard the anger. The kind of anger that is unhealthy. My friend already knew that and so I didn’t spend much time trying to remind her. I knew I risked offending her at this point and backed off and decided to approach her about it again at a later date.

Prolonged anger is completely different than initially experiencing anger and then finding a healthy way to deal with it. When we are hurt and angry we are extremely vulnerable to veering off in a direction that takes us away from God and not closer to Him for the help we so desperately need.

Anger is certain to hinder the nearness of God and the healing work He desires to do.

When we lay our hurt and anger at His feet and let it go, then something amazing happens. He moves us out of the place of anger and into a place of healing. The weight that anger was pressing on us is lifted and we will experience the nearness of God again. He never moved. Anger moves us away from Him.

The only way to manage anger is to let it go.

By Kathy Cheek
Used by Permission
www.kathycheek.com

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“Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.” Proverbs 10:12

When I was twelve, I had a horrendous fight with both of my brothers. I was shocked at the anger and hate I identified in myself. A verse in 1 John 3:15 smothered me with guilt and shame: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

But the fighting continued in my closest relationships. At times my anger felt overpowering and I was conscious of being hateful. However, I rationalized that feelings of hatred could not be the cause of the dissension — that I had a right to sort things out. I grappled to be understood. I doubted that Solomon’s words, “love covers all wrongs,” really meant what they said.

The New Testament affirms the wisdom of Solomon: “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” 1 Peter 4:8.

Over 50 years have passed since that fight with my brothers, and we have a great relationship now. But these words by contemporary author Mike Mason still ring true:

“In order to surrender, and so to put an end to fighting, one must see that it is within one’s power to consciously and prayerfully move toward love. The storms of life, we all know, are fraught with subtlety and complexity. But perhaps, in the end, the peace we seek lies in something very simple, the pure action of our will. The question is not What should I do? but Will I do it?”

That question provided an “ah-ha” moment for me. Whether I liked it or not, it was a matter of obedience to choose love and peace in the face of conflict.

Lord Jesus, thank You for revealing to me that You will renovate my life as I obey You. Amen.

By Sue Braid