Last time we learned, we can change our actions faster than we can change our feelings.
One of the hallmark Scriptures regarding anger is found in Ephesians 4:26-27 which admonishes the reader:
“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”
Dr. James Dobson categorizes five levels of anger:
- Mild Irritation: An easily corrected annoyance
- Indignation: Reaction to something unfair or unreasonable
- Wrath: This level never goes unexpressed
- Fury: Suggests violence, strikes out against another
- Rage: Most intense level, brutal acts committed without conscious thought
All levels of anger are a menace, but of the five levels indignation is the most prevalent. I describe it as a slow burn.
From these descriptions I conclude that anger has an agenda:
Anger wants someone else to pay.
Anger is not satisfied until it has been paid in full – plus interest.
Many a person’s unresolved problems are wrapped up in the garment of indignation. The people who hold on to it and nourish it, however, pay the highest price for letting it run rampant within by not learning to rid them selves of this blight to their being.
The latter phrase of Verse 26 above is not a suggestion; it is a Command. But know this, God does not command that we do anything He will not equip us to accomplish. A competent, Bible-based counselor with specialized training in this area can help identify and break down these walls of anger by pinpointing the source of the unresolved issues.
I heard an expression many years ago that well describes what anger will do to a human body if anger is not dealt with effectively.
The bowl that holds the acid is eaten by the acid.
Recently I read the following quote from Mark Twain who expressed the thought more eloquently than stated above:
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
Next time: Blame keeps wounds open
