Righteous Anger

A Godly Anger

In Ephesians 4:26-27 "Paul is saying there is a godly anger that is not sin. God gives us a command to get angry with a righteous anger. Then he says, 'Let not the sun go down on your wrath.'  What happens when the sun goes down? Typically we stop working. The day winds down, and we rest and go to sleep. Paul is saying, 'Don't let this godly anger ever stop working. Keep it awake. Stir it up and keep it active!'  Then verse 27 continues, 'Neither give place to the devil.'  If we don't keep a godly anger active within us, we are giving place to the devil" [source].

Anger at Injustice

"It is important to recognise that anger at an injustice inflicted against oneself is appropriate. Anger has been said to be a warning flag - it alerts us to those times when others are attempting to or have violated our boundaries. God cares for each individual. Sadly, we do not always stand up for one another, meaning that sometimes we must stand up for ourselves. This is especially important when considering the anger that victims often feel. Victims of abuse, violent crime, or the like have been violated in some way. Often, while experiencing the trauma, they do not experience anger. Later, in working through the trauma, anger will emerge. For a victim to reach a place of true health and forgiveness, he or she must first accept the trauma for what it was. In order to fully accept that an act was unjust, one must sometimes experience anger. Because of the complexities of trauma recovery, this anger is often not short-lived, particularly for victims of abuse. ... This is often a long journey. As God heals the victim, the victim's emotions, including anger, will follow. Allowing the process to occur does not mean the person is living in sin" [source].

Unrighteous Anger

Most of the time, our anger is not righteous...

Internal not External

"[I]t's not what others do to you that makes you angry ... Our anger comes from the inside, not the outside. I know most people don't like that. ... it's comforting to think that it's what someone else did that made you angry, but that's not true" [source].

Emotions and Anger

"Angry people usually justify their anger, saying it's someone else's fault they are angry. Yet the Bible repeatedly warns us against giving in to anger when we are upset by other people's words or actions ... God does not want us to simply react emotionally to others' actions. Instead, we should respond with wisdom and a gentle spirit" [source].

"Each one of us has a particular level at which our emotions overflow and we cry out, 'God help me!'  We may have just received disappointing results to a medical test or some devastating news from a family member. Our emotions are a mess! We don't know if we're angry, panicked, scared, fearful of the future... we do know that we can't continue in our own strength. Sometimes these emotions are too much for us to handle and they spill onto others" [source].

Fear and Anger

"When first diagnosed with cancer, I was fearful of going blind. I vented anger at my caretakers. Did you ever notice that fear and anger are siblings? Harsh words are exchanged between individuals, fearing betrayal in their relationships. Fear concerning a medical test generates anger when cancer is confirmed. It doesn't even matter of the anger/fear is clearly justified... it still continues to ferment" [source].

Control and Anger

"Destructive fear (worry, panic, suspicion) is generated from anticipation of the unknown. We all like to be in control of our circumstances. (Doesn't it just make you angrier when you can't be in control?)  But when I compared my minimal human capabilities to that of an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present God, I surrendered my control. Suddenly my fears (and anger) diminished (Psalm 131:1-2)" [source].

Bitterness and Anger

"Anger and bitterness are two noticeable signs of being focused on self and not trusting God's sovereignty in your life. When you believe that God causes all things to work together for good to those who belong to Him and love Him, you can respond to trials with joy instead of anger and bitterness [John C. Boger, {source}].

Self and Anger

"When we give in to anger, we often focus on our own welfare, comfort or happiness. Instead we should be primarily concerned about other people's welfare and being a good witness for God" [source]. 

Pride Causes Anger

"Only by pride cometh contention... It's not what others do to us that makes us angry; it's the pride inside of us that causes us to get mad. I know that's not what most people believe, but that's what God's Word says. This verse doesn't say that pride is one of the major reasons for anger - it's the only reason. What a statement!  I ministered this in Pueblo, Colorado, many years ago, and a man came up to me after the meeting and said, 'I've got a lot of problems, but pride isn't one of them. If anything, I have such low-esteem that I hate myself. Yet I have a lot of anger. I just don't understand how my pride is the source of my anger.'  What this man was missing was a proper definition of pride. Many people think of pride only as arrogance. But that's only one manifestation of pride. Timidity and shyness are extreme manifestations of pride. Pride, at it's core, is simply self-centredness or selfishness. Timid and shy people are extremely self-centred people. I know this to be true because I was an introvert. I couldn't look at people in the face and talk to them. I was so consumed with me that I was always thinking, 'What are they going to think of me? Am I going to make a mistake and look foolish?' That self-centredness made me shy. ... So, pride is not only thinking we are better than others; pride can be thinking we are worse than others or just being self-conscious. It doesn't matter if self is always exalting itself or if it's debasing itself. It's all self-centredness, which is pride. Like it or not, understand it or not, pride is the source of all of our anger. As we deal with our own self-love, anger towards others will be defused. The only reason we are so easily offended is because we love ourselves so much. As we die to ourselves, we will be able to love others the way that Jesus did" [source].

Parents

"John told the fathers that in their quest for justice to 'do violence to no man'.  If a son sees or hears violence coming from his father, animosity, hatred, a get-even aggression, will he believe that his father is the spiritual leader of the home? When does the angry man stop and do his metamorphosis into the lowly disciple, the meek man of God? Can he be believed when he speaks of love and patience, mercy and grace? Does the son believe that this father is a praying man? Does he pray for his enemies - like Jesus did? When he is angry and violent towards Mom and the kids, is the son to ignore what he does and still respect him? If you find a son who can respect the unrespectable father, you have found a vein of gold in a garbage dump. If the Messiah came to a nation where the men were all angry and violent, could they be His disciples and remain violent and angry? If they did would their sons follow them into a 'faith' that did not issue in justice?" [source].

Dealing with Anger

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you"
(Ephesians 4:31-32).

"But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil"
(Hebrews 5:14)

"If we fail to deal with anger we will be giving Satan a foothold in our lives. If you give him an inch, he will take a mile. If you fail to deal with your anger, he will manipulate you and gain control over you, and will start to claim ground in you ... anger is one of the tools Satan uses to ensnare us. We need to deal with anger as quickly as possible" [source].

"The way to 'get rid of' something is to 'be' something else. So what is it Paul says to be? Three things: be kind, be tender, be forgiving.  In other words, you 'put off' by 'putting on' ... You can rest assured, if you are an angry person, one or more of these qualities are sorely missing in your life. Now how do you create this new habit of being kind or tender or forgiving? The same way you create any other habit, by practice" [source].

"Notice the phrase, 'by reason of use'. That's the key. If you practice doing something for a sustained period, in time you will gain some degree of expertise. That is what you must now do in order to overcome this sin of anger. You must begin to practice kindness, compassion and forgiveness" [source].

"Most men have painful memories of hurts in the past or memories of things that they did to hurt others. If they did not respond by forgiving their offenders or by asking forgiveness for their offenses, they became vulnerable to Satan’s lies, such as 'You are stupid' or 'You’ll never amount to anything' or 'People are out to hurt you'.  All these experiences and the lies that go with them are filed away in the heart and mind of that young man. In the future, when someone tells him that he has done something stupid, or he is frustrated, or he feels like a failure, all the pain and guilt of the past flares up in anger. We have found that by helping [men] transform these painful memories by applying the commands of Christ, they are able to experience victory over anger, as well as to overcome guilt, lust, bitterness, greed, fear, and envy" [source].

Catharsis and Ventilation

"[Paul] Meier and [Frank] Minirth taught that repressed anger causes depression and therefore recommended ventilating anger, verbally expressing anger, and talking about anger. [But] research has demonstrated just the opposite: that when anger is expressed it increases. When children, for instance, are encouraged to act out their anger, they become more aggressive and belligerent in their subsequent behaviour. While people may initially feel relieved to 'get it all out', their anger does not go away. It actually continues to grow and cause further problems" [source].

"The psychological rationale for ventilating anger does not stand up under experimental scrutiny. The weight of the evidence indicates precisely the opposite: Expressing anger makes you angrier, solidifies an angry attitude, and establishes a hostile habit" [quoted at source].

Thus saith the LORD,
Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way,
and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls
(Jeremiah 6:16)

© Bayith Ministries     http://www.bayith.org     bayith@blueyonder.co.uk