Published by Anger is a familiar word to all of us today. Nobody gets angry for no reason. One gets angry when he or she is upset; irritated or provoked. It is an emotional way of showing displeasure. Anger could lead to sin if permitted to stay in our hearts. Maturity demands that we as Christians should correctly handle the emotional feelings called anger so as not to fall to its destructive tendencies.
Quickly, we would be looking at anger in its scriptural perspective under six Cs.
Causes of anger
People mostly get angry when things do not go the way they expect. Jonah got angry when, contrary to his expectation, God did not destroy Nineveh. He was angry to the point of death. (Jonah 4). Some selected Israelite soldiers, after Amaziah, the Kind of Judah, disappointed them, they got angry and slew three thousand (3,000) inhabitants of Judah and took great plunder (2 Chronicles 25 :5-10; 13).
Cruelty of anger
Anger does more harm to the angry sometimes than those he/she is angry against. Anger tears the angry to pieces; it could cause hypertension, heart failure and even paralysis (Job 1&14). Anger destroys. It made Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon to lose his innocent most mighty soldiers to the flames of the furnace, whUe those he was angry at (Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego) came out of the fire unhurt (Daniel 3:19-25)
Condemnation of the angry
Jesus Christ condemns anger In Matthew 5:22, He said, “But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in the danger of the judgment”.
Companionship with the angry
The word of God strongly discourages this. Proverbs 21:19 says, “It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman”. Again Proverbs 22:24 says, “make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go”.
Command and counsel to the angry
The word of God has not left the angry without instruction. Psalm 37:8 says, cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil” Also Ephesians 4:31 says, ‘let all bitterness and wrath, and anger and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice”
Cure for anger
What is the Bible’s wisdom to deal with people and situations that make us angry? Proverbs 19:11 says, “The discretion of a man deferred his anger; and it is his glory to Passover a transgression”. Those of us that get easily angered; let us pray for grace to be patient with people and power to overlook offenses.
