It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,…I Corinthians 13:5
All my life, from birth, it’s been a fight. And it always seemed to be another man’s war. I always seemed to be fighting for someone else. But it always came back to me. The Word says we’re born into sin, and sin always comes back to war. –“Sam Childers
The life-giver is intentional about how they feel. They only use anger at the appropriate time and in a constructive way. Buttons will be pushed in this life, but we cannot allow anger to make our decisions. Some of the worst decisions in my life have come when I was angry. Some of the worst things I have said have come from anger. There are two types of anger, sinful anger and godly anger.
Let’s fist talk about sinful anger. Probably the people who we love the most will push the buttons of anger. Anger is a decision we make, a choice. I have sat and planned my anger. Have you ever caught yourself thinking: “If so and so does this, I will be so angry at them.” Sometimes we will plan out our angry retort. Modern technology has even helped in our sinful anger by putting angry words down in an email to whomever we are angry with. Never write and send an email when you are angry. When we allow sinful anger to be part of our lives, it takes from our life. When you allow yourself to be stressed to anger, the physical things it does to your body is not good. Besides that your words can tear down a person if that is what you want to do. When we are angry, our better part of ourselves is put aside and we choose words that can cause regret later. The best anger management begins with your attitude. If you have a good attitude and are content where God has you in this life, you will be less prone to allow anger to take over your demeanor. I cannot stress this enough in my writing, we get the best attitude by the word of God, talking to God and the people we put around us. If you want to be a positive person you have to so these three things. A life-giver takes time to get angry and will always pick their battles.
We always use Jesus as an example of righteous indignation. Jesus overturned tables, drove the moneychangers out of God’s house with a whip. He was really super angry, but for the right reason. God’s house as He put it is a house of prayer and worship, not some place for bargain hunting. Jesus the ultimate life-giver used anger to His advantage. The Pharisee’s would always try to trip Him up, but He would always come back with the proper response, but also with brutal honesty. When we are defending the people of God, or God’s house, anger is sometimes needed. Jesus showed us that we as Christians are not doormats ready to be stepped on. There is a right time for anger and that is for a righteous cause. Love fuels righteous anger. The love for God’s house, and the love for God’s people. I watched an interesting film called Machinegun Preacher the other night and was completely shocked and mesmerized by the life of Sam Childer’s a former bike gang drug user. He got out of prison and was radically saved when he went to church with his wife. He went on a mission trip to Sudan and was stunned to discover children being taken into the army at a young age. He felt God’s calling on his life to start a church and an orphanage plus the drastic thing, rescue these children. He doesn’t rescue these children by peaceful means, he takes a band of rebels with him and ambushes the bad guys who take captive these kids; hence the moniker Machinegun Preacher. I’m not certain God wants us to take up arms and fight like this man does, but he is making an impact. He had an orphanage of over 300 children in Southern Sudan. He still is doing this today. Childer’s sordid past I believe God has used to save all of these children. I really can’t criticize his method or his heart for what he is doing, but I’m certain that course of action is not going to be the majority. I cannot even condone it, but he seems very successful with what he has set out to do.
The life-giver uses anger constructively and intentionally picks his/her battles. Love is always on the life-giver, therefore a positive approach to problems will be the course of action a life-giver will take. The three things for anger management are, loving God’s word, loving and spending time with God, and loving God’s people. When we do those three things, we will have a tough time getting angry.
© [David Howard], [David’s Body Temple], 2011-2015.
David's Body Temple 