Anger management

Anger, it’s a strange word it differs with just one letter from angel yet it is quite the opposite from feeling angelic.

It raises the blood pressure and the heartbeat. It just feels angry to be angry.

Anger could be the result of assuming or knowing that someone has hurt you and it is natural to be angry when we think that we have been wronged.

Especially when it is a righteous anger when someone has indeed wronged us.

But when it is not a righteous anger because we just assume someone has wronged us it is a tragic thing.

Do not sin when being angry

God tells us not to sin while being angry.

“In your anger do not sin.” Psalm 4:4

So how do we sin when we are angry?

Well I can think of many ways, but it all comes down to stepping out of the Holy Spirit’s Character and following our own human character that is not pleasing to God for it does not walk in the unconditional love of God.

When anger causes us to sin, we say mean things to try to hurt the person whom we assume has hurt us.
So it becomes an eye for an eye unlike what God wants us to do.

I guess most of us react this way and it is wrong. It is not pleasing to God and it just enhances problems.

I wonder how Potiphar must have felt when he realized that Joseph did not try to hurt him by laying with his wife.

He probably had said many things to try to hurt Joseph for he felt wronged.

He had trusted Joseph and he felt outraged filled with anger when he assumed that Joseph had betrayed his trust because of the twistings of the devil.

But he did not listen to his heart that must have told him that something wasn’t right with the twisting. That the good impression that he had of Joseph before was the right one.

But he did not think it through and just went along with his anger and terribly sinned.

Still God was with Joseph as He will always be with us also, when we are unjustly accused of being evil.

What can we do to not sin

So what can we do to not sin like Potiphar and others or just like ourselves when we may get angry.

We should pray and ask God to help us to remain in His character and to let us know through His Spirit if we really were wronged or not.

But it may seem difficult to perceive Him when we are angry, so we need to pray it through for we don’t want to wrong others ourselves by assuming they are evil when they are not.

For then we have become the evildoers ourselves and hurt God and the person that we are unjustly angry at.

It’s best not to become angry, but when we do, we must never sin and especially think of Christ our Lord, Joseph and others who were wronged by people who assumed they were evil.

Blessings and love in Christ

Monique