Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Oh Such A Great Danger Is Anger

EPHESIANS 4:31-32 – Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

 

THEME OF THE DAY:  OH SUCH A GREAT DANGER IS ANGER. Have we considered just how destructive sinful anger is when it is unleashed upon someone?  It is like a stick of dynamite, and with some people, the dynamite of anger has a very short fuse.  It does not take much to light it, and when it explodes, damage follows.  And the damage may be severe.  Like in the following story.

 

A boy once asked, “Dad, how do wars begin?” “Well, take the First World War,” said his father. “That got started when Germany invaded Belgium.” Immediately his wife interrupted him: “Tell the boy the truth. It began because somebody was murdered.” The husband drew himself up with an air of superiority and snapped back, “Are you answering the question, or am I.” Turning her back upon him in a huff, the wife walked out of the room and slammed the door as hard as she could. When the dishes stopped rattling in the cupboard, an uneasy silence followed, broken at length by the son when he said, “Daddy, you don’t have to tell me anymore; I know now.”

 

To grasp how great a danger anger is, we need to look at two directions anger takes making it so destructive.   First, anger is directed to us.  It begins with the person in the mirror and the selfishness within that person.  When it comes to a simple definition of anger, we may summarize it like this, “Anger is the response by actions, words, or attitudes when our wills are denied, our schedules are interrupted, and our desires go unfulfilled.”  Basically, anger says, “I want it my way, and if that doesn’t happen, you are going to hear about it.”  And when it comes to destruction, the most hurtful and harmful person is the selfish person, and angry people are selfish people – For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:20-21).

 

The other direction anger takes is toward others, and almost always toward those we know best and are closest to us, our families, spiritual and physical.  When anger is directed toward them, it does so often by our speech.  And here is the danger; what we say, we cannot take back.  In the heat of our emotional situation, let anger rule the heart and tongue, welcome great damage.  Relationships become strained, even fear may settle into the one receiving the barrage of verbal anger. So much damage happens in any and all relationships when anger is allowed to settle into our hearts   The saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is simply not true.  At all.

Anger. Oh such a great danger is anger, yet, we don’t have to be marked by anger.  As Christians in union with Christ, we have all resources in and from Him to overcome any and all anger.

 

PRAYER: “Father, prevent me from allowing any form of sinful anger – attitude or speech – come from me.”

 

QUOTE: “A sinfully angry person is either an unbeliever despite what they profess or a backslidden believer.”

 

In the affection of Christ Jesus,

 

Pastor Jim