Anger

I don’t know about you guys, but I get tired of people criticizing me about my anger issues. It really ticks me off. Sorry about that. Sometimes I just can’t help myself.

I do get frustrated and angry when something breaks or fails to work as it should. My children were always watching for a change in my facial expression, knowing a volcanic eruption might be around the corner.

"Hey Dad, are you okay?"

"Hey Mom, I think Dad hit his thumb with the hammer again."

Children really do notice.

We know anger is a real problem, as it has come up frequently in our Bible studies over the past three years. We are concerned and seeking God’s wisdom.

Tim Keller is one of the preeminent pastors of our generation, and one of my favorite authors. He presents us with an interesting perspective on anger. What follows is excerpted from Dr. Keller’s excellent devotional book God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life:

Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. . . The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit; a man who is under the Lord’s wrath falls into it. (Proverbs 11:4, 22:14)

THE GOODNESS OF ANGER.

God himself is a God of wrath. Paul tells us not to sin in our anger. (Ephesians 4:26), meaning there is a proper place for it. So, anger is not of itself something bad but very quickly goes bad in us.

Anger is energy released to defend something you love. God is angry to ward the evil that dishonors him and ruins that which he loves. But the problem with human anger is this-we tend to over love the wrong things. It is not wrong to value your name and reputation, but if you love them too much, there will be inordinate anger that essentially is just defending your ego. Parents may get inordinately angry with their children mainly because the children embarrassed them before others. Because our loves are confused and out of order, our anger-basically a good thing-so often does evil. We need to look to the one whose anger was always guided by love not for himself but us.

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Consider the following:

Think of the last time you got really angry. What were you defending?

What has resulted from your anger? Hurt or Help?

Take a look at Mark 3:5 and John:14-17

—Mike