January 10, 2019
Rage Rash: Neutralizing the Acid of Anger (Part 1)
 
Below you will find an audio of the devotion being read for you, followed by the written devotion. Listen on the go, listen as you read along, or enjoy reading it without the audio. God bless!
 
 
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. — Mark Twain
 
Smoldering Inferno
Every day we encounter things that have the potential to agitate us. There are many pressures and demands upon us that can put us on edge. People we love do things that irritate us: leave a drop of milk in the jug and put it back in the refrigerator, squeeze the toothpaste in the middle, snore, eat with their mouth open, etc. People at work don’t give us the respect we feel we deserve. The neighbor’s dog likes to decorate your walkway with his imitation of warm, squishy, stinky, Lincoln Logs.
 
Then there are more significant things that can boil our blood. Someone almost takes out of the front of our car, as they needlessly and recklessly, cut us off in traffic. We read the news and discover that innocent people are killed, people are starving to death, sex trafficking and drug smuggling are rampant, self-righteous athletes and entertainers mock Christianity and moral values, and our once-Christian-nation is sliding further into chaos and confusion.
 
Whether it is annoyances or injustices, we have plenty of reasons to get angry.
 
Pastor Groeschel points out that there are 15 different times the Bible mentions “anger” and “fire” in the same verse. The Lord is trying to get us to see an obvious correlation between the two.
 
Fire is a great thing when harnessed and used properly. When managed appropriately, fire can give us warmth, light, and be a great source of heat for cooking. There are many, many good things that can come from a fire that is aptly contained.
 
However, if fire is not controlled, if it is allowed to burn out of control, it is one of the most destructive forces known to man. Unchecked fire can consume everything in its path, take out forests full of trees, destroy precious possessions in a home, and even take the lives of those we love.
 
“Just like fire, our anger can be used constructively or destructively. Used as a catalyst for justice and the pursuit of God’s righteousness, anger can cleanse, restore, and unite. Or, if we allow our anger to rage out of control in conjunction with our desires, frustrations, and grievances, it can lead us to hurt others and ourselves. Our anger can reflect God’s character or it can distance us from him. It can invite God’s Spirit into our lives to examine a hard truth, or it can become an open invitation to an unwanted houseguest.” (1)
 
Inappropriate anger allows Satan to be a houseguest in our hearts. Ephesians 4:26-27 admonishes us not let our anger lead to sin, and that if we do not manage our anger correctly, it will give Satan a “place” to inhabit in our lives. Our anger can give the enemy an opportunity or a location in our lives.
 
Additionally, the Bible encourages us to not let the sun go down on our wrath. We must be careful not to allow anger to fester too much in our lives. Even if our reasons are justified, prolonged anger can be self-destructive. It can be detrimental to our physical, mental, and spiritual health. It can also lead us to treat others in an unfair and unjust way.
 
Anger Management
Pastor Groeschel identifies that people usually manifest anger in one of two ways – a hair trigger or a slow cooker.
 
Hair Trigger: Spewers are people that have a short fuse and a hot temper. They have no problem letting everyone know about their anger. They are often quick to anger, and quick to move on. Like a person with the flu, they spew all the toxic stuff out and then they feel much better. But sometimes, while they are walking around feeling better, others are still trying to clean up the mess they made. Have you ever enjoyed getting puked on? I know I haven’t.
 
I recall a time when I went to a brother in Christ and tried to reconcile. I knew he was upset with me so I tried to do the Christian thing and make things right. Our conversation was very one-sided for most of two hours, in which this individual chewed me up and spit me out. I was quite confused when the next time I saw this person, they came up behind me and playfully pulled my arms behind my back, like we were best friends wrestling around. I was having a hard time figuring out how this person expressed such toxic anger towards me several hours before, and now they were treating me like a life-long friend. I think I understand better now. They were obviously a spewer. They spewed their anger on me and then they felt better. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel as well as he did about the whole thing. I didn’t have any desire to hold a grudge, and the Lord helped me get over it with time, but a person does not quickly forget harmful and damaging things said by an enraged person. They feel better, but the people they threw up on are sick for a while afterwards. Be careful if you are a spewer.
 
Proverbs gives us great instruction on anger. We will read both verses in The Voice version.
 
Proverbs 14:17a: “Quick-tempered people make fools of themselves”
 
Proverbs 29:11: “A fool does not think before he unleashes his temper, but a wise man holds back and remains quiet.”
 
Be careful how you vent your anger. Obviously, we cannot let everything build up inside, and we will address that next, but think before you act. Make sure you do not let your rage run out of control. Manage it. Control it by the help of the Holy Spirit. Let it out in a constructive, rather than a destructive way.
 
Slow Cooker: If you have been listening or reading the last bit of this devotion about spewers and you are thinking about other people, you are not off the hook. If you are not a spewer, you are a stewer. Like me, you have a weakness towards keeping things trapped inside like a pressure cooker. That anger doesn’t get spewed out all at once. We appear to be in control. But our tongue lashes out sarcastic remarks. The term “if looks could kill” was developed after we glared at someone. We have no problem giving others the silent treatment to prove our displeasure. Even though we may not speak words while giving the silent treatment, our actions and our demeanor are shouting out our contempt! We can become hypercritical and extremely judgmental. And somehow, even though others are steering clear of us like we have the plague, ducking and dodging us like we are Mike Tyson throwing knockout punches, we feel justified because we have not “lost our temper.”
 
“Sure, on the outside, you might look like you have yourself under control, but just below the surface, you’re smoldering, building up heat that could erupt into flames at any minute. What stewers practice is the opposite of love. First Corinthians 13:5 says that love “is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” But stewers keep a long list of offenses: “She did this … He did that … I’ll never forgive them for …” They stew and stew and stew on the ways they feel others have wronged them. Whether served hot or cold, anger stew is a poisonous dish, a carcinogen that will grow a cancer inside you.” (2)
 
Now that we are all sufficiently convicted, and running for the altar, let’s talk about solutions.
 
Fire Extinguisher
“Regardless of whether we’re a spewer or a stewer, we’re likely going to wind up in the sewer unless we learn to control our response to our anger and express it productively.” (3)
 
You may be protesting right now and saying something like, “When I get angry, I just cannot control myself. I have always been this way. If people wouldn’t make me so angry, I wouldn’t behave that way.” Before you try to justify your anger by saying you cannot control it, consider the hypothetical situation in which a husband and wife are in a very heated discussion, yelling at each other, and the phone rings…
 
The husband angrily tells his wife, “We will finish this in a moment!” and picks up the phone. “Hello…oh hi pastor…yes…that sounds great…praise God…my wife and I would love to testify at the marriage retreat about how well we have been communicating since the last seminar…see you soon…God bless.” After he is sure he has hung up, he jumps right back into angry mode and says, “Now where was I?”
 
And ladies, don’t act like you haven’t done it either. You may be in the middle of tongue lashing your husband, or giving the silent, full-on-glare treatment, and your friend calls, “Oh hi girlfriend, what are you up to today…that’s right…too blessed to be stressed…just look what the Lord has done…alright girl…we have to get together soon…Chow baby.” After hanging up, you look at your husband and say, “Don’t think that means you are out of hot water. You are still sleeping on the couch tonight!”
 
Hopefully you enjoyed that scenario as much as I did. It is funny, in fact, it is hilarious, because it is true.
 
James 1:19-20 says, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”
 
These three things will help us to exercise better self-control in the area of our anger: listen more than you talk, carefully consider your words, and do your best to hold off on becoming angry.
 
These things are things we can be conscious and aware of, but we also need the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to help us maintain self-control. It is God and us working together. Each doing our part to change the way we allow anger to operate in our lives. We don’t have to yield to it. By the grace of God, we can extinguish it!
 
One more note on controlling anger: if we are easily agitated or angered, it may also be that we are overcome with some of the other toxic behaviors, emotions, or influences. A lot of these things go hand in hand. Bitterness, resentment, regret, condemnation, and other factors can contribute to our anger being difficult to manage properly. The positive thing to remember is that God wants to heal us holistically. As we submit ourselves to the cleansing of His word and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, we will notice improvements in all of these areas of our life.
 
(1) Groeschel, Craig. Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World (p. 129). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
(2) Groeschel, Craig. Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World (p. 134). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
(3) Groeschel, Craig. Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World (p. 135). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.