DEALING WITH ANGER

James 1:19-20 New Living Translation

“Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. A man’s anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.”

          Why do we get angry? Impatience could be one reason. When things just aren’t going our way on a given day we have a tendency to get frustrated and as a result lose our temper.  In the metallurgical world losing temper means simply that the material has either lost its hardness, thus becoming soft or lost its flexibility, becoming brittle. In our case, we have lost our flexibility. We have allowed circumstances beyond our control to get to us. We have allowed ourselves to get riled up, to become ticked off and it is usually all downhill from there.  I know because I lose my temper when things don’t go my way at times. I am much better than I used to be, but that side of me still rears its’ ugly head from time to time.  A lot of the time it happens when I’m driving.  How silly. We allow things that we can’t control get us so upset that we act in uncharacteristic ways and say inappropriate things.  I don’t need to do any research to know that is not what Jesus would do.

          Fortunately, this comes as no surprise to God. He knows us better than we know ourselves and I think He may just send some of these annoyances our way to see how we handle them. As believers we are to grow spiritually.  Godly resources are at our disposal anytime of the day or night, we just always seem to be doing something else besides taking advantage of them. We need to remember whose we are; we are ambassadors for Christ.  Are we acting like it? Are we living like it? I’m not at times. God knows we are frail and fault-filled. He also knows what we can be in Him. Let us all avail ourselves of His wonderful tools to become all we can be in the Lord. It’s a learning process; we are constantly under construction. Let us learn from our mistakes and make adjustments in our behavior so as not to look foolish to others, thus being no different than the world.  Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!

Anger defined: A strong feeling of displeasure or hostility; to make angry; enrage or provoke.

Resource: The Life Application Study Bible; published by Tyndale House.