The School of Everyday Christianity 5: How to Fight Against Anger

Welcome to the School of Everyday Christianity, where we apply the Bible and Christian teaching to the problems and situations and questions that people run into in the course of everyday life.

Today, we want to ask and answer the question, how do we fight against anger? Do you ever feel like anger just has a grip on you, or you find yourself just being angry a lot?

Well, you need to learn how to fight against it, but the first thing we do in fighting any sin is we've got to know what we're up against.

We've got to know who or what our opponent is, right? When we think about fighting anger, we need to know what it is.

I want to give you a definition. This is from Robert Jones' book, Uprooting Anger, which is an excellent resource. If you struggle with anger,

I want to highly recommend that book to you. He defines anger in this way. He says, anger is a whole person's active response of negative moral judgment against perceived evil.

I know that's a mouthful, so let me say it one more time. Our anger is a whole person's active response of negative moral judgment against perceived evil.

There's a lot we can say about that definition. I want to point out maybe just two quick things about it. The first thing is that anger is not something that we possess.

It's not something that happens to us. It's something we do. It's an active response to some sort of provocation, some sort of perceived evil.

It's something that we do. That's the first thing that we need to realize, because if it's something that we do, then that means it's something that we are responsible for.

It means it's something we need to do something about in order to curb it. The second thing is that our anger, it doesn't just involve the emotions.

It's not just feelings that well up within us, but our anger is a whole person's active response.

That means it involves our minds, our wills, our behaviors, and our beliefs. So we need to see that it's not just an emotional outburst, but it has to do with all of us, and it's something that we do.

Now, if you read the scriptures, you're going to see that God is angry sometimes. You see it in the

Psalms, where God is angry with the wicked. What we see there is that there is a category for divine anger, and then for human anger.

If there's a category for divine anger, and God is absolutely holy, righteous, sinless, and He's also angry, then that means there is a category of righteous anger.

So humans can imitate God in that and be righteously angered. But if we're being honest with ourselves, that's not generally our response.

When we talk about anger, we're usually dealing with the sinful type of anger that we need to put to death.

And so if we're going to do that, we need to know how does it express itself?

And so when we think about how does anger manifest in our lives, we can think of outwardly, through yelling, hitting, slinging things around, pitching a fit.

Think about inwardly, maybe through envy, or bitterness, or malice that we harbor in our hearts, seething in hatred.

Or maybe you clam up, or you glare at someone, or you're kind of huffing and puffing and just being obviously irritated.

These are all ways that our anger might manifest itself in your life.

And think about it, what contributes to our anger? Usually there's some sort of provocation, right?

Where somebody has sinned against you, someone has hurt you, somebody has hurt your feelings. Maybe your expectations for a situation have not been met.

There's usually some sort of provocation. But what we need to realize is that these provocations, these are occasions for our anger, but they're not the cause of it.

They're the occasions for it, but they're not the cause of it, because someone doing something else, they don't have control over your emotions.

They don't have control over your beliefs, or your behaviors, or your actions, your mind.

No. Our anger is a whole person's active response. It's something that we do, and that means we're responsible for it, and it also means that somebody else can't make us do it.

One of the fruits of the Spirit is self -control. We must have self -control.

And when we think about it this way, we can control ourselves in some really intense situations of intense provocation, because they're not making us, they're not causing our anger.

They're just giving an occasion for it. And so in those occasions, how do we fight against anger?

Well, the first thing I would encourage you to do is think hard about James 1 .20.

The anger of man worketh not the righteousness of God. And so you want the righteousness of God to prevail in a certain situation, in a certain relationship.

And the one thing that God tells you will not work is your sinful anger. And so just see how our anger is unproductive.

See how our anger does not work to bring about the results that we want.

And so James 1 .20, the anger of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

You want to meditate and think on God's Word. And so in the show notes of this video, or the description,

I'm going to list out some verses on anger. You can go look up in your

Bible, and you can meditate on these. You can think on these. Commit these verses to memory, and they will help you fight against your sinful anger.

Because what we have in God's Word are the answers and the solutions to our problems.

We have problems. The Bible has answers. And so we can go and find these verses, and they're like bullets in a gun to help us fight and kill our sins, including sinful anger.

I would also encourage you to pray. Ask for God's help. You're up against something very strong.

Our indwelling sin is very strong. Our anger is very strong.

You need God's help. And God, Psalms 46 .1 tells us, is an ever -present help in times of trouble.

And so go to God. Pray. Ask. Don't lose sight of the fact that you can go to God in prayer.

Don't leave that resource of going to God and drawing His strength for your self -control in an intense situation.

Don't let that be. So go to God and ask for help. Another principle that we find in Scripture is that of putting off and putting on.

That means we put off sin, and we put on virtue. We put on the virtues of Christ.

And so you might think of, you want to put off hasty speech, and you want to put on restrained lips, like Proverbs 17 .27

says. We are often quick to speak, James 1 .19 talks about this, quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

You see, our quick lips and our anger, well, those are connected. So we want to put off hasty, quick speech.

Saying the first thing that comes to mind, and put on restrained lips. Practice not saying the first thing that comes into your mind.

Another thing you want to put off is harsh words, and you want to put on wise words. So the Proverbs say, there are words that are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

And so you want to put off the harsh words that cut like a sword, and put on wise words that bring healing.

You want to put off wrath, and put on compassion. You want to put off envy, and put on thanksgiving.

You want to put off venting and just letting it all fly, and put on self -control, like Proverbs 29 .11

says, and Galatians 5 .23 talking about the fruit of the spirit. Another thing you can do is meditate on God's character.

You see, we learn by imitation, and so we want to imitate God so that we can imitate righteousness and holiness.

So we need to think about God's character. Think about His patience. Think about His long -suffering.

Think about His kindness. And then make it specific. Think about God's patience to you.

Think about God's long -suffering in dealing and putting up with your mistakes, your sins.

Think about God's kindness to you, and as you think about how He has treated you, then you go and treat others likewise, and imitate

God in that. Another thing you need to do is confess your sinful anger.

Your sinful anger. Even if somebody else sinned against you, and that was the occasion for the sin, if your response was sinful anger, then you have sin you need to confess.

How do we fight against sin? We confess it as sin. We talked about this in another video.

We'll link to that as well. But you need to confess your sins and be forgiven by God, and that is the only way to kill the sin.

And then lastly, I would encourage you to take some practical measures. Make sure that you're doing some practical things that can reduce external provocations.

So make sure you're getting enough sleep. Make sure that you're avoiding maybe certain kinds of media that you know are provocations for you or occasions for anger for you.

Maybe you need to watch the company that you keep. Maybe the people around you are stirring up sinful anger in you.

You need to learn to walk away from provoking situations.

Are you getting enough exercise? Just think practically, these are things that can help maybe reduce those external provocations and help you deal with them better.

But above all, I want you to meditate and think on God's Word for helping you, for giving you ammunition for killing your sinful anger.