ANGER

All this month in Sunday School we have been discussing anger.  What does anger look like in the life of a Christian?  How should we as Christ Followers respond to our anger?  How can we use God’s grace to showcase to us to show the RIGHT way to deal with anger and show that to a lost world? 

I have greatly enjoyed these lessons on anger.  Our study was written by Dr. Charles Stanley and has been taught by an awesome teacher (who just so happens to be married to me), and has been enlightening and encouraging to say the least.  The timing of the lesson is superb since we are learning and dealing with some anger issues not only with ourselves but also within the confines of our immediate and extended families.  Isn’t that the way that God always works?

There are several key points that Dr. Stanley has made.  For example, he notes that there are several causes or roots that create our anger.  These include:

v  Blame and Shame.  I think that we all do this.  You know, if they hadn’t done XYZ than I would not have needed to get so angry!

v  Pride.  Oooh, what an “ugly” word.  So many of us are so full of pride that we won’t even acknowledge Christ in the right way.  We do things that benefit us and get angry when people don’t do things for us the way we think we should.  Perhaps there is a reason why the Proverbs tell us that pride comes before destruction (Proverbs 16:18).

v  Addiction.  We can become addicted to so many things, anything can become our idols.  Drugs, alcohol, sex, lust, technology and when someone disturbs us or our addictions we get boiling mad!

The one main thing that Dr. Stanley has noted is that God is not only full of mercy but He is also full of grace.  The Bible tells us that God is slow to anger (Psalm 103:8).  That we should be slow to anger and guard our tongues (James 1:19) and in doing this we will be more like Christ.  Anger is not a bad emotion; after all it was created by a perfect God for our benefit.  Like Robert pointed out in class yesterday morning:

“If God is slow to anger then He knows and understands how to deal with anger the correct way.  We need to take our cues from Him!”

Until we had done this study I had never thought of myself as an angry person.  Now, I can see how anger has driven my life in many ways!  Thank God that He uses lessons, family, children, and my friends to aid me in this life growing process.

So I must ask, does anger affect you and if so, what are you going to do about it?