ChoicesSample

Will you choose to control your anger?

What makes you angry? When you feel disrespected or unloved? Misunderstood or unheard? How do you respond when those feelings rise in your heart?

The Bible has much to say about anger, but it doesn’t say that we should never be angry. God’s word explains that most anger is misplaced. When we are angry about how others treat us, when we are offended, our anger is from our perceived mistreatment. God’s anger, His wrath, is the right placement of anger, toward sin and injustice.

There is an account in the gospels of Jesus clearing the temple. I love this story. I rather doubt Jesus was going to each seller and politely asking them to leave. Scripture tells us he was tossing tables and slinging a homemade whip, commanding them to get out! The gentle Jesus we see in traditional portrayals was more than mad. He was angry! Angry at sin in the temple. What a parallel for us to consider.

Selfish anger controls our words and our actions for destruction, but choosing righteous anger motivates us to change. We use self-focused anger to try to make others fit our wishes and desires. This anger bulldozes others, shuts down communication and leaves devastation in its path. In our efforts to control, we have actually lost all control. But, when anger is turned against sin, our desire will be to drive it out of our own hearts by the power of Christ who lives in us.

May we be so angry at sin that we will drive it out of our own temple--our heart.

Choose to control your anger, or it will control you. Choose righteous anger. It will change your heart.