TODAY IS…

a good day to learn to use God to control our anger.

“For man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”  James 1:20 NIV

An examination of the causes for the incarceration of many of the inhabitants of our nation’s prisons will provide us with proof of the destructive nature of anger.

Violence, even death, is surely not what God desires. It is important that we learn to use Him to help us control our own anger lest we find ourselves consumed by it. We should never want it to reach the point where it adversely affects our lives, the lives of those around us, or our relationship with God.

The Bible does not tell us we shouldn’t feel anger, but it does tell us to, “Be angry and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.” (Ephesians 4:26-27 NASB).

When anger is vented in an uncontrolled manner, its violent destructive nature is released and satan is able to grab it and use it as a sword to cut a wide swath of damage that could result in broken relationships or families, injury, or even death.

Just as bad is anger that we keep bottled up within us, creating the potential for our anger to eat away at us, consuming us from within. This provides evil with another opportunity to work against our relationship with God. The result will be our harboring of bad thoughts about the person or situation we are angry with. With prodding from satan, those thoughts can build inside until the pressure is released with violent force and a tragic ending for all concerned.

So how can God help us control our anger?

We can ask Him to help us understand the person or situation causing our anger.

We can ask Him to help us forgive an individual who has wronged us, no matter how severe we believe the transgression to be.

We can ask Him for strength to rise above the situation and not provide satan with a foothold in the door through which he will try to enter to do his work.

We can also ask God to identify opportunities that might be present in the midst of any situation causing us anger.

In a multitude of ways, God can, and will, help us control our anger. All we have to do is ask.

To prevent our anger from getting out of control in the first place, we can always take advice from Plato, who once said, “He best keeps from anger who remembers that God is always looking upon him.”

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson