ANgeR

“ANGER  IS JUST ONE LETTER SHORT OF DANGER”…but actually…sometimes it can be healthy.

Anger is a powerful emotion. Most of us lash out at our loved ones from time to time (and usually vice versa) and then we have to apologise later, eating humble pie or having to make amends.

 If controlled and sprung from good motives, however, anger can also be a powerful force for good and positive changes.

Typical yucky anger is the madness that we all go through when our personal goals are frustrated by people or events or objects. This sort of anger needs to be dealt with straight away.

 The Bible says: In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. (Ephesians 4:26)

In itself, anger is a normal God given feeling and emotion - but - we need to keep our response in check so we don’t cause damage to the people around us.

Healthy anger, on the other hand, is motivated by compassion for other people. Sometimes we can be so concerned for other people that the emotion of anger erupts within us. Once again, it is important to respond in a healthy way, but it is worth thinking about. Jesus is a good example of compassionate anger. Here’s an example:

 “Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shrivelled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shrivelled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.” (Mark 3:1-6)

Compare Jesus anger of compassion with the Pharisees violent anger.

Being angry is not a sin in itself.  The Bible deals more with what happens after that initial feeling of anger; in other words - what we do with it. We have a choice about entertaining evil actions, or if motivated by love:  using the anger in a compassionate way.

Most of our anger is to do with our throttled and frustrated wants and needs -but every now and then we actually have ‘righteous’ anger that can spur us onto to  doing good for people around us. May God grant us the wisdom to know the difference!