Some of our emotions can be overwhelmingly powerful. We can be almost literally consumed by emotions like love, anger, jealousy, joy and pain. They can turn our lives upside-down. They are seemingly not under our control, but rather, often control us.
Why do we feel these things so deeply within us? Where do they come from?
We feel these things because God feels these things. Throughout the Bible we find examples of God experiencing all these emotions: love, anger, jealousy, joy and pain.
These emotions are part of us because we are made in God's image. Anger and jealousy in our world are so often destructive, whereas God's anger is always used to acheive righteous ends: it is constructive.
God is provoked to anger many times in the Bible by people's hearts going astray (Heb 3:10), or following other god's (Deut 6:11), or idolatry among his people (the Golden Calf, Exodus 32:9,10). Again and again people's sin provokes God to anger, wrath even.
Likewise, Jesus was provoked to anger by the stubborn hearts of the Pharisees. In Mark chapter three Jesus wants to heal a man on the sabbath, but they are more concerned about their own laws than about God's compassion. It says Jesus looked round at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn heartsref he healed the man.
Moses was also angry about the golden calf incident, and when reading Galatians, it's hard to miss Paul's anger about the false teaching in the church.
Can you spot a theme here? There are things it is right to be angry about: the same things that God is angry about; the things that dishonour Him.
In each case the result was constructive: God came up with a plan of salvation; Jesus was spurred-on to heal, despite the Pharisees, and to clear his father's house. Paul was motivated to write his letter to the Galatians and defend God's truth.
Our Anger
So what about our anger? What provokes us to anger, and how do we deal with it? I'd like you to think for a moment about the last time or two that you were really angry. What provoked you to anger? Why were you angry? And what did you do about it? How did you express your anger?
'In your anger do not sin' : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold
Learn some self-control, how to avoid giving full vent to his or her anger. As Proverbs says, Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city
Practice the habit of thinking first and speaking later. As the Apostle James says Everyone should
be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.ref Thinking first and speaking later is a good habit to have in any case, for as Proverbs says, Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue
This is the most important one:
Recite the
fruit of the Spirit, which are in Galatians chapter 5. When in danger of exploding, try to remember to recite love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self control. It's a pretty good antidote. It's humbling when we realise that our venting our rage is the exact opposite of the fruit that the Spirit is trying to grow in us.
First it's important to try to work out what has caused our anger. Why are we angry? Prayer will help us to do this. We do not need to be shy to bring our anger to God; to confess to him fully and frankly how we feel. It's important that we do this.
When you are angry, pray!
As we pray and try to understand what has caused our anger, God may show us that we are right to be angry, or he might show us that we have no right to be angry.
If in our anger we can bring ourselves to pray we may well hear God saying to us "
Do you have any right to be angry"?
Most often our honest answer will have to be no, we don't have any right to be angry. We will be angry because our personal comfort has been attacked, or our beliefs have been challenged. We will be angry because we are selfish, or self-centred. So often we are angry because of some inconvenience or other. It's a question of perspective. When we start to see things from God's perspective, we may find that rather than anger our correct response should really be repentence. With the right perspective the anger will no longer trouble us.
But from time to time when we pray, we will find that, yes we do have a right to be angry. Perhaps someone has truly and deeply hurt us; or perhaps we are angry on someone else's behalf about an injustice of some sort.
if someone has truly hurt us, then there is only one possible response that we are called to. How should we respond when someone hurts us? Our only right response is to forgive those who hurt us.
We frequently pray the Lord's prayer which contains these words, "Forgive us, as we forgive those who sin against us" . God always forgives.
He sent his Son to die for our sins.
In Ephesians goes on to say, Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Right after Jesus gives us the Lord's prayer he says this: If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sinsref.
As we wrestle with forgiveness, we can know that we are doing God's will, and he will heal our anger.
Sometimes though, forgiveness is not the issue. Perhaps we are angry about a cause like injustice, or about someone slandering God, or a particular evil in the world.
In cases like this our anger is a great motivator to do something about it. It can be God's antidote to our indifference. Well-controlled anger is the sort of thing that leads people to do great tasks like causing the abolition of slavery, or sparking off the reformation, or campaigning against tyrannical dictators, or fighting drug smuggling.
This is what Jesus did with his anger. It motivated him to heal on the Sabbath. It motivated him to try to keep his father's house undefiled.
GOD BLESS
; I feel not far behind. 
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