ANGER

Lethal 'Work of the flesh

Anger directed at others or at oneself, is one of the most devastating works of the flesh.

Anger. You feel the hot tension in your body as your temper flares. Your face flushes and your stomach churns. Or maybe your stomach doesn't churn----maybe you feel only bitterness against someone. Or maybe you have a hard time forgiving people. Or you hold grudges.

Anger manifests itself in many forms. sometimes you can recognize it. But Sometimes you can't. It is important to understand what anger is, whatever form it takes. If you don't control it----if you don't repent of the "work of the flesh" Bible verse Galatians 5:20 calls "outbursts of wrath"----anger will keep you out of God's kingdom!

A prevalent problem

There are a lot of angry people in this world. Just look at people's faces as they drive, especially on crowded highways, or walk down the street. And there are angry people in the Church. In my years as a minister I've had to plow through a lot of long, drawn-out counselling sessions with people who had serious problems in their relationships with others. When I dig down deep, about 90 percent of the time I find a layer of anger.

Sometimes anger is hidden and smoldering; some people don't express it openly. On the surface, things look calm. But under the surface, these people are boiling. Their anger is implosive.

Others do not blow up. They lose their temper and you see churning anger in their eyes. Their anger is explosive

Neither type of anger is healthy. High blood pressure, migraine headaches and nervousness are all connected with anger. Uncontrolled anger also causes spiritual problems, especially lack of inner peace and joy. God's Holy Spirit is impeded when anger rules. Whether anger is up front and explosive or hidden and implosive, it is among the most devastating "works of the flesh."

Can you recognize it?

Several years ago I received a call in the middle of the night from a woman who said she wanted to talk to a minister. She said she was so depressed and was contemplating suicide. This woman was a Church member in her early 30s. She had children and a converted husband. But she was grappling with heavy depression. After talking with her briefly, I said, "I sense you're angry."

She said: "No, I'm not. I'm depressed." I told her that depressed people who become suicidal usually feel a lot of inner anger. "Why are you saying am angry?" she yelled. I had to hold the phone away from my ear! Then she calmed down and softly said she was sorry. She admitted she was angry. we learned that she was angry at her father, her brothers and pretty well everybody else.

A sad story began to spill out about a miserable childhood. Her stepfather and brothers had molested her. Her cold, coercive mother had shown no concern, but instead had allowed a vulnerable, frightened little girl to be abused for years. As this woman talked about her childhood, her voice varied from softness to hurt to explosive anger. At times she almost screamed over the telephone. She wanted to commit suicide to punish those who had hurt her.

We had to deal first with all the inner anger she felt toward her parents and brothers. Then we could deal with the other problem that sat on the surface, masking the anger underneath.

Anger can be lethal

Years of pent-up anger and hostility can become a time bomb. It can explode or it can implode. When it does, it destroys. Angry people tear at their mates, at their children and even at the Church.

The Bible warns us to guard against this lethal sin of anger: "Be angry, and do not sin" (Ephesians 4:26). This verse indicates some anger is acceptable. There is such a thing as righteous indignation over the evils of the world. But there is a qualifier: "Do not sin."

Anger and sin frequently come close together. Anger often leads to sin. It can generate sin. This Bible verse even adds another qualifier about being angry: "Do not let the sun go down on your wrath." That is a pretty tough request! Whether your anger is righteous or not, God says that when the day is over and the sun is set, you shouldn't hold your anger in or bottle it up. You shouldn't add new layers of hostility day after day.

Why does God command you to get the anger out of your life right away? Look at verse 27: "Nor give place to the devil." Don't give Satan room to work in you. Satan identifies with an angry spirit. He can begin to manipulate you and stir up your anger. When he does, God's love can not grow in you. The Holy Spirit will be impeded.

The source of anger

Anger is at the core of Satan's personality. He became angry millions of years ago when he felt he was so beautiful and talented that God should use him more. But it wasn't Satan's time to be promoted. So he became angry with God. His anger led to an outburst of hostility and rebellion in which he tried to overthrow the throne of God!

Satan tries to pump anger into our minds because he wants us to think like he does. With anger a catalyst, Satan can destroy God's character in us. We become less like God and more like Satan.

Notice verse 30: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God." When the sun goes down on your anger and you are filled with hostility and bad attitudes, you are grieving----blocking and impeding----the work of the Spirit of God. You simply cannot grow spiritually. God will not allow an angry mind to be placed within a glorious spiritual body in his coming kingdom. Anger can destroy you spiritually.

Jesus said: "Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matthew verse 5:22).

Righteous indignation

There is a time to be indignant. Jesus Christ forcefully drove out the money changers who were defiling the temple (Matthew 21:12). He became angry at the Pharisees for the hardness of their hearts (Mark verses 3:1-5). Christ directed his anger toward sin, not toward people. He controlled himself at all times by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. He was "swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath," as James in verse 1:19 tell us to be. Jesus displayed righteous indignation.

But, sad to say, most of our anger isn't righteous. James adds, "The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (verse 20).

Why do you get angry?

Let's understand the process of anger. Anger grows in three ways:
   1) We choose to feel and express anger by assuming Satan's own spirit of disobedience.
Bible verse Ephesians 2:2 tells us, "You once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience."

Satan plants thoughts of anger and hostility in our minds. He injects anger because he is always angry. He subsequently choose to think and act as Satan himself does, instead of thinking and acting the way God does!

You're not born with anger. It's a spiritual problem. Anger comes into your mind from Satan from the day you're born. He starts impressing thoughts and attitudes into your mind as if your mind were wet cement. Your nature becomes like Satan's as you choose to act on those thoughts and attitudes.

Until we repent of following Satan's way and let God build his character in us, we are "by nature children of wrath" (verse 3).

   2) The environment in which we live influences us. A child is impressionable. He acquires traits through the modeling and identification process as he grows up. His environment affects him. If he has an angry parent, he will learn to be angry. If his mother is hostile toward his father, or if his father has an explosive temper, he will acquire an angry outlook on life. It will build up in layers. Satan will first pump anger into the child's mind. Then the child will acquire more and more anger through the modeling process.

'Parents, then, have the responsibility to counteract Satan's influence in their children's minds, and set the example of peace in the home. Anger promotes rebellion. Anger promotes disobedience. Anger makes it easier to become offended.

   3) Incomplete and inappropriate parenting produces anger. A child needs to feel loved and wanted. He needs structure, discipline, affection and support from his family. If parenting is incomplete in these areas, anger will build in a child. A lot of angry teens are just trying to get even with their parents or with the world. Teenage delinquency stems from insufficient parenting.

But God says if children honor and obey their parents, life will go well for them (Bible verses Ephesians 6:1-3). They'll grow up into solid, stable adults and "live long on the earth."

God further instructs, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath" (verse 4). Parents can create angry children. How can you avoid provoking wrath? By bringing them up "in training and admonition of the Lord." This means lots of loving, lots of instruction in God's ways and firm discipline.

Colossians 3:21 sheds more light on proper parenting: "Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged." This doesn't mean a one-time bout with discouragement. It's a permanent problem.

Wrong ways to deal with anger

Many people try to control anger because it is socially expected that we do. But without God's help, many deal with anger in wrong ways like these.

Burying it. Denying anger and stuffing it in the back of your mind is not the right way. I've had people tell me, "I'm not angry," but anger is written all over their faces. The sharp look in their eyes could drill holes in you.

These people sit there and try to smile and act in control. Then they jump in their car and burn half the rubber off their tires as they careen down the road----not angry, mind you!----with two tons of metal under their power. People bury anger because they don't want to admit they have it.
Bottling it up. This is similar to burying anger, but differs in that you realize you're angry but don't deal with it properly. You hold it in put a plug on it. It's a form of implosion, which is the opposite of explosion. Anger stays in, and it builds up. There are people who say: "You know, before conversion I had this terrible temper. Boy I used to want to knock everybody's block off. But now I control it. I don't let it out. I don't ! I control it!" But the veins on their necks are sticking out even as they say this!

The problem is, the anger ultimately will implode on the inside and create all kinds of havoc in the body. Many physical problems come from bottled-up anger.

Ventilation. Ventilation means letting the anger pour out. Some psychologists say: "Anger will hurt you if it doesn't come out, so verbalize it. Build a room in your house, pad it so nobody can hear you and then go into the room once a day stand there for 10 minutes and scream. Then you'll feel fine!"

But you won't. Anger feeds upon itself.

Or how about the advice to buy a punching bag and pretend it's someone you're mad at? The result is that you'll probably like the person even less! Letting your anger out in little dribbles isn't the right way, either. Little barbs and nasty remarks may make you feel better, but you won't be better. Such behavior does nothing to promote peace and harmony between people. In fact, it leads to conflict.

What is the solution?

There is a biblical solution to anger. These three points can apply to anger or almost any other sin you want to overcome:
   1) Face most anger as sin. Unrighteous anger----and, as we've seen, that includes most anger----is a work of the flesh that must be overcome (Galatians 5:20).

   2) Repent of anger. Go to God and specifically confess the anger. David did. He talked about what was wrong with him in vivid terms. Psalms 32:3-5 is a good example: "When I kept silent [that is, when he didn't commit it to God, when he pretended he wasn't angry], my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long [he finally had to admit it!]. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me [God brings us to repentance]... I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin."

Acknowledge to God the anger in your life openly and humbly, and God will forgive you.

   3) Ask God for help. Now you need to ask God for the power of the Holy Spirit to supernaturally remove anger, wrath and malice from your nature. Satan's spirit of disobedience, the environment around you and perhaps inadequate parenting created anger in you. God's Spirit can take it out of you.

Just containing anger is not the final solution. If you're at a stage where that's all you can do, that's OK. But it's better to get rid of anger completely Bible verse Ephesians 4:31 says to put anger away. This point is interesting: There are certain problems of the flesh that we do control. There are certain other problems that God says he can take away completely.

Sexual impulses, for example, are meant to be there. God created our sex drive. He didn't design it to be removed. He'll give you the power to control it in obedience to his law. So we don't ask God to take away our sex drive. We control it.

There do seem to be certain attitudes, though, that God says, with time, and if we stay close to him, he will remove from our minds. Vanity, anger and pride must be put away if we are to be in God's kingdom.

Through the working of the Spirit of God, we can control and ultimately remove unrighteous anger from our lives. Remember: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God... let all [not part] bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you" (Bible verses Ephesians 4:30-31).