Coping With Anger
At some time in our lives, we all suffer from emotions that we would prefer not to experience; therefore, we find it difficult to cope with them. During the course of our following meditations, we will examine some of them and consider the help which the Bible gives us to control them.
We will begin our meditations with the emotion of ANGER. An understandable natural reaction is to view anger as something that is always negative and to assume that the Bible will consider it to be sinful. First of all, therefore, it is important to observe that it is perfectly acceptable to understand that there is such a thing as ‘RIGHTEOUS ANGER’. Consider these statements from the Scriptures:
- ‘So the ANGER of the Lord was kindled against Moses’, Exodus chapter 4 verse 14.
- ‘So the Lord became ANGRY with Solomon’, 1 Kings chapter 11 verse 9.
- ‘And the ANGER of the Lord was hot against Israel’, Judges chapter 2 verse 14.
- ‘And when He (Jesus) had looked around at them with ANGER’, Mark chapter 3 verse 5.
- ‘And when He (Jesus) had made a WHIP OF CORDS, He drove them all out of the Temple’, John chapter 2 verse 15.
Divine Persons (God and Jesus Christ) display anger towards people, on occasions; nevertheless, we must never charge them with committing sin. Their ANGER is always justified and brought about by the disobedience of men and women; however, they take no delight in exercising discipline on them. The Psalmist writes, ‘God is a just judge, and God is ANGRY with the wicked every day’, Psalm 7 verse 11.
It follows from this that, when confronted with evil and disobedience to God’s commands, His people are justified in being ANGRY! For example, we read in the Bible:
- ‘He (Moses) saw the calf and the dancing: so Moses ANGER became hot and he cast the tablets (the 10 Commandments) out of his hands and broke them’, Exodus chapter 32 verse 19.
- ‘Jonathan arose from the table in FIERCE ANGER’, 1 Samuel chapter 20 verse 34.
To be continued