Anger Hunt

Some Christians can be as mad as a pit bull chewing bumblebees and still excuse their temper by saying that it is just the way they are. They take a perverse pride in being outspoken and honest. One man told his pastor, "I know I have a bad temper. I suppose that is my cross." His pastor said, "That is not your cross. It is your wife's cross. And it is your sin!" 

Anger? Sin? I get angry... am I sinning?  You never think so when it's you spewing bumblebees. I'm going on an anger hunt.  I want to find out what God says about this anger thing because I know He gave us the emotion. I also know I want to take captive any unrighteousness in my life.  I want to be in right standing with God.

Not all anger is sin, but some is. Just as lust is often confused with love, so the two sides of anger are misunderstood. Lust and love are powerful emotions of attraction: one to get something, the other to give something. Anger is a powerful emotion of resistance which also has two sides: selfish and selfless. Both sides, however, are expressed by the same word.

Two Greek words are used in the New Testament for our English word “anger.” One means “passion, energy” and the other means “agitated, boiling.” Biblically, anger is God-given energy intended to help us solve problems not anger involved self-defense, but a defense of others or of a principle.

A pearl to string: As I'm writing self-defense just leaps off the page.  Defending self....hmmm what does that really mean? Someone hurt me.... so I'll get angry?  It's not going my way...so I'll get angry?  That's not how or what I think or believe .... so I'll get angry?  Oh, oh, oh that was disrespectful to me.... so I'll get angry? The culture we live in has so radically changed from my youth.  It's topsy turvy and loosey goosey on every level so I'll get angry?  The government is not doing what I want.... people are not doing what I want..... church isn't doing what I want..... so I'll get angry? Really? Do any of us have a right to self righteous anger?  We have the right to defend ourselves just not in anger.   How can we be 'good and mad'?  Jesus shows us how. Unlike most of us, he was never angry at wrong done to himself. Even while he was hanging on the cross he said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do". I've got some work to do with the Lord.

 Anger turns to sin when it is selfishly motivated: "...for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires" (James 1:20).

 Oh my, we need the Lord,

                                    Lyndi