TO BE OR NOT TO BE ANGRY? | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: TO BE OR NOT TO BE ANGRY? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Angela Williams
01/25/05
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Anger is an emotional response to certain stimuli. This response affects you both in a physiological and biological way. Normally the heart rate goes up, the blood pressure increases and the adrenaline starts pumping. The release of adrenaline triggers the famous ‘fight or flight’ response, although, in many cases, aggression is dominant. Flight is sometimes necessary for survival so anger is not necessarily a bad thing.

The Word of God is not silent on the question of Anger. Proverbs 22:24-25 in the King James Version warns
“Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his way and get a snare to thy soul.”
Uncontrolled anger then, is something that can be extremely destructive. Words spoken in anger can ‘cut to the quick’ and devastate. Actions done in anger are no less damaging and tend to result in lasting regret. Ephesians 4:26-27 says
“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”
Scripturally therefore, there seems to be a place for anger. The key is to control it. You can either express it, suppress it or calm it.

Expressing justified anger in an assertive, non-aggressive way is said to be the best way to deal with it. You get a chance to air the issue causing the problem and can hopefully come to some closure on it. Sometimes, just being able to vent provides solace. Suppressing your anger by focussing on something else or deferring it may force it to turn inward on you and have a deleterious effect on your life. Many times bitterness results from suppressed anger. Calming involves taking steps to control both the inward and outward manifestations of anger and allowing the feelings to subside.

A tutor once advised me that when you cannot change a circumstance you can change your response to it. This advice is sound when dealing with anger. Many times, the trigger causing the anger is something that you cannot change in the short or long term. Jesus asks us to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us. Why not cast the circumstance causing the anger on Him? Pray for them who hurt you and who abuse you and let Him do the rest.

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