A CHRISTIAN WALK MINISTRIES

Reverend Matthew & Mrs. Deborah Harper

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SIN INDUCING ANGER

In your anger do not sin…do not give the devil a foot hold. Eph. 4:26-27.

Anger is one of our many emotions. There is nothing inherently bad about feeling angry it is just a natural response to an offensive act. It is a part of our defense system. In the Old Testament God became angry with His people many times and Jesus showed his anger with the moneychangers in the temple (John 2:14-16). However, how we respond to the offensive act could very well be sinful. There is an old saying: “success occurs when ability and opportunity meet”. Anger opens a door of opportunity to sin and Satan’s demons are ready and able to pull you in that door and help you succeed in sinning, Ephesians 4:26&27, In your anger do not sin…do not give the devil a foothold. There are two elements to a person’s anger mechanism that determines how a person will respond to an anger attack; Inherent anger disposition, call this attitude, and learned anger disposition, call this wisdom.

1. Inherent anger disposition (Attitude): This is a person’s natural attitude and response towards things that generates anger emotions in them. For example, there are people who have a “short fuse” and become enraged and go into a defensive mode with very little provocation. At the other end of the spectrum we have the “mellow fellow” who is very slow to respond to things that would anger most people.

2. Learned anger disposition (wisdom): This is a combination of inherent anger disposition and learned wisdom. For example; a small man with hot tempers lives next door to a very large man with a dog that makes potty on the small man’s lawn. Each time this happened there would be a physical altercation and the small man would end up in the emergency room. After a while the small man learned to call the police and let them handle the matter. Learned wisdom changed his inherent (attitude) disposition into a new learned (wisdom) disposition.

Satan will have many opportunities to control your actions, if you are a “short fuse” person and respond from your inherent disposition. Satan will drive you to do and say all manner of things that will not be pleasing to God or good for your health, future or reputation. These types of, out of control, negative anger responses always lead to regrets.

Controlling anger; He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His ways. Psalms; 25:9 (NIV). Key to responding to an offensive act is to never let your self be tempted into saying or doing ugly sinful things. If necessary, walk away from the situation giving your self time to relax and cool off, and then consider the best approach in resolving the matter. Learn to be humble but firm and persistent in your response but not sinful. For example the small man, in above paragraph, could talk with his large neighbor and ask him to please curb his dog. If this fails he could talk with him again telling him officials will be called if the dog is not curbed. This is a much better response, no sinning and no visit to the emergency room.

How can you change your self so you will not be a short fuse person? By having good things on the inside of you so good things will come out. Just imagine you are a sponge and just like the sponge when you are under pressure whatever is on the inside comes out. If you are full of dirty water (hate, envy, grudges, jealousy, prejudices, etc.) when you come under pressure, such as a neighbor with a wayward dog, a lot of dirty water (Cussing, fighting, suing, etc.) comes out. However, when you have a proper relationship with God your life will be guided by the Holy Spirit. (See Galatians Chapter 5 verses 16 through 26, with emphasis on verses 22 and 23, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.)

When our lives are controlled by the Holy Spirit our sponge is filled with the clean and pure living water of Christ. Therefore we do not respond to pressure with a gushing of dirty water, we respond with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We have to work hard, continuously, to let go of and clean out all the ugly and sinful things that fill our soul so God can fill our sponge with His Living Water. Then we will not fall to the temptations to sin in our anger.