Anger
“Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun.
To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past,
to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come,
to savor the last toothsome morsel,
both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back-
in many ways it is a feast fit for a king.
The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself.
The skeleton at the feast is you.“ Frederick Buechner
Is anger controlling your life?
Do you say and/or do things you regret because of anger?
Does anger keep you from loving God and others?
Do you have an angry wall around yourself?
Would you like to be set free from this bondage and the control it has over your life?
You have a choice to make.
You can choose to be angry for the rest of your life.
You can continue to seethe, brood, and develop bitterness.
You can hold onto this dangerous emotion that often threatens to take control, leading to violence (against yourself and others), emotional hurt, mental stress, and spiritual damage.
You can remain in a 3-legged race with unforgiveness and hobble through life together.
OR
You can choose to forgive-With God's Help
and be set free from bondage to uncontrolled emotions.
Forgiving and letting go of your anger will free you of a heavy load of bitterness.
“The first and often the only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiving. When we genuinely forgive, we set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was us. “
Lewis Smedes
You may be stuck in lies about forgiveness.
Lie: Forgiveness needs to be earned.
Truth: Repentance is vital to accepting forgiveness, not to giving forgiveness.
Lie: If I forgive them/him/her then it means what happened was ok.
Truth: Forgiveness does not deny the seriousness of sin.
Lie: Forgiveness lets the offender off the hook.
Truth: Forgiveness is often the only way to settle a debt.
Lie: If we forgive our abuser we need to trust him/her again.
Truth: Forgiveness is letting go of a debt that can not be repaid. It does not mean we have to trust the offender. Trust must be proven. Love is unconditional, trust is conditional. Grace is a deliberate decision to give something good to someone who doesn’t deserve it.
Unforgiveness is a toxin.
Read “The Cleansing Power of Forgiveness” by Dr. Don Colbert.
05/2006 Enjoying Everyday Life, Joyce Meyer Ministries Magazine.
You are invited...
Please join us on a 15 week journey of healing.
In [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off].Galatians 5:1
God desires for you to have a victorious life!
Scripture References
- Job 5:2: For vexation and rage kill the foolish man; jealousy and indignation slay the simple
- James 1:20: For man's anger does not promote the righteousness God [wishes and requires].
- Proverbs 29:22: A man of wrath stirs up strife, and a man given to anger commits and causes much transgression.
- Proverbs 14:10: The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.
- John 8:36: So if the Son liberates you, then you are really and unquestionably free.
- Ephesians 4:31: Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).
- Nahum 1:3:3: The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will by no means clear the guilty. The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet
- Exodus 23:7: Keep far from a false matter and [be very careful] not to condemn to death the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify and acquit the wicked.
- Matthew 18:23-27: Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a human king who wished to settle accounts with his attendants. When he began the accounting, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents [probably about $10,000,000], And because he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and his children and everything that he possessed, and payment to be made. So the attendant fell on his knees, begging him, Have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And his master's heart was moved with compassion, and he released him and forgave him [cancelling] the debt.
- Colossians 3:8: But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips!
