Righteous Anger Management

Today's Scripture  Ephesians 4:6 Psalm 4:4 Exodus 34:6

Last issue, we studied and learned that anger itself can be righteous. God got angry; Jesus got angry; and even on our best days, we can get angry. However, God gave us guidelines on how to use anger. Three of them are:

 

We can practice self-control techniques, like
stepping away, to actively slow our anger.

1. Don't sin while you are angry.

2. Get angry slowly, and don't stay angry.

3. Let your love abound much further than your anger.

 

The first and second are fairly simple, but not obvious. As a leader, you will sometimes gain respect while angry because, in light of circumstances and venue, it might actually show you stand for something of value, be it integrity, honesty, and/or fairness. Show me a leader who really stands for something of value and/or meaningfulness, and I will show you someone worth following. Therefore, here are a few more signs of when your anger is not sinful and could be considered righteous. Does your anger look like this?

 

1. It takes a lot to make you angry.

2. You refrain from using profanity or the Lord’s name in vain.

3. You are angry at the offense, but you do not degrade the person.

4. As a result, you don't take revenge against the person.

5. Your anger will visually and inwardly fade very quickly, even the same day.

Unfading Anger Becomes Bitterness

 

For the most part, my anger fades quickly, most of the time within minutes or hours. Early in my marriage, I could have a heated argument with my wife and an hour later take her out for dinner like nothing even happened.

However, I must admit that, recently, some friends hurt me, and the hurt cut so deep that it lasted for months. Part of the reason for my lingering hurt was the fact that they did not even know I was hurt. This made my hurt turn into anger. That anger simmered for months until it began to turn to bitterness. I became bitter, until the Lord revealed to me the sinfulness of my condition. I was amazed since I have always had the ability to cool off and forget quickly. My encouragement to you is to never take yourself for granted. The devil can get a hold on even what you consider the strongholds of your life. And he got me until I forgave.

Lives that Abound in Love 

 

Our third guideline is the key to all righteous anger management: love. The question is this, "Does our life abound with love in contrast to our anger?" How would you measure yourself in this? Does your love for those you lead abound far beyond your anger with them?  

We should constantly be thinking of how we can be kind.

Our church pastor is preaching a series on 1 Corinthians 13. The resulting challenge is that I am consciously trying to do one deliberate act of love every day. Some take minutes; some take longer. If it will help spur your thoughts toward superseding your anger with abounding love, I will risk forfeiting God's blessing by giving you some examples in my own life this week. I helped some older women connecting their computer in an Internet café; I tried to evangelize in a county fair booth. Twice, I bought some construction workers bottles of Gatorade, and a few minutes ago, I offered some cash to a lady having trouble with an ATM machine. This was not much, I admit, but it was the best I could do during a week when my management was shorthanded and "Murphy's" law seemed to prevail. (This is just an expression my friends; it is not theologically correct).

 

Friends and leaders, learn the art of righteous anger management. May those you lead recognize the heart of the matter, and that is the heart of Christ in you.

 

Measure your anger by your love.