ANGER

“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like..” James 1:19-24

We have all questioned someone about being angry and they said, “I’M NOT ANGRY!” or asserted they were bitter and they snapped back, “I’M NOT BITTER!” That’s because anger makes us forget what we look like. Anger is a very deep and important topic because we all have the same battle, yet every person’s battle has a different root. No matter what the root the words of James rings true when he says “man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” Anger changes usand blinds us. The most discerning people become rash, the most honest get deceitful, the most loving become cold and distant. It takes our words away and injects words we would never imagine using. The challenge for every person walking the face of this earth is to find out the root and to accept it. If we don’t do both we will always end up destroying everything good we try to do in this life.

Anger is shown in the intensity of our words, the look on our face, the tone of our voices, the tempo of our speech, the beating of our heart, in our body language, and in the alienation which comes from avoidance or the silent treatment.

One of the most challenging aspects of anger is how much it completely and utterly deceives us. We get so deceived that we forget that there’s one anger we should ever see displayed: God’s anger. So we deceive ourselves into thinking that our anger can accomplish something. Psalm 36:1-4 speaks of the actions, thoughts and feelings of the deceived heart, “An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.” It is incumbent upon us all to eradicate this ugly tool of Satan by “Pulling this weed up, root and all”. In order to do this we must understand and accept the wisdom of Proverbs 18:4 “The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook” and in Proverbs 20:5 “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.”
In order to dig deep enough to get to the root of anger, we must approach our relationship withv God knowing Psalm 42:7 “Deep
calls to deep in the roar of your waterfall.”