God's Answer to Anger

God's Answer to Anger (1009)Unjustified anger is like an acid that brings harm to anything it is poured on, including the very container it inhabits. We have an Enemy who delights in this kind of anger. In it, he creates opportunities for us to wreck our own lives and destroy our own testimonies.How do we control our sudden anger, condemn our sinful anger, and conquer our stubborn anger?- Recognize it. There is no use in hiding it.- Repent of it. There is no getting rid of it any other way.- Refuse the devil’s schemes. There’s no reward in associating with them.This is necessary to do if we want to control, condemn, and conquer ungodly anger before it controls, condemns, and conquers us.But there’s another kind of anger: a sanctified anger to be channeled. It is not destructive to the soul, and it does not result in sin. We see an example of it through Jesus when He was moved with righteous anger to clear the temple of malicious Pharisees and self-seeking merchants who were taking advantage of the poor.Through this story, we see it is not only possible to possess a righteous anger, it is expected. In fact, injustice ought to stir us and move us to act. Never once in any of the four Gospels did Jesus retaliate when He was personally attacked and abused, even unto His brutal, unmerited death on the cross. Yet, Jesus was moved with righteous anger to act when He saw other people being attacked and abused.Selfless love does not nullify anger. It calls it to action. It motivates us to do something about the hurt we see in the world.Adrian Rogers said, “Sometimes anger is love’s clearest expression but we need to be careful with it.”If we want to follow the example of Jesus, we are instructed to get stirred up about the injustice around us; and to get angry at the right time for the right reason against the right thing in the right way.####Apply it to your lifeIs there a sudden, sinful, stubborn anger in your life that is controlling you? It is time to break free of it. Don’t let another moment go by without recognizing it, repenting of it, and rebuking the Enemy, so that you may be emptied of it and filled with the Spirit of righteousness.