Be Angry

Soul Detox: Anger

Ephesians 4:26-27 MSG
Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.

Anger is an agitation in your soul which pushes you to act more aggressively and with greater hostility than you normally would.

Because anger leads to an aggressive, hostile reaction, we typically perceive it as a negative emotion. While this is often the case, there is a positive side of anger called righteous indignation. There are things that should make you angry, things like sin and its counterparts--immorality, injustice, ungodliness, and wickedness. This righteous anger should drive you to do things which actively oppose these evils. But this type of anger should not cause you to disconnect from those you love or to respond in a way that would not glorify God. Righteous indignation will never push you to get on social media and speak ill of those who have disappointed or upset you.

One example of righteous indignation is the anger that one may feel towards abortion. The knowledge that nearly 100 innocent babies, created in the image of God, are being slaughtered in the womb every hour, will anger you. This anger should motivate you to actively oppose abortion, but not by murdering abortion providers or berating women who choose abortion. It should lead you to adopt children, become foster parents, or financially support organizations which encourage pregnant women to choose life. Personally, my righteous indignation towards abortion has caused me to minister to an amazing organization that supports mothers in choosing life.

However, if you do not respond to your righteous indignation by doing something to oppose sin and evil, your anger will become a negative emotion. Righteous indignation has a shelf life. If you don’t use it in time, it will turn bad. At that point, no matter how justified your anger was in the beginning, it will be the same negative emotion with which you are familiar.

The root of negative anger is that you didn't get what you wanted. Anger occurs when things don’t turn out the way you think they should have. Maybe you didn’t get that job you deserved, maybe you didn’t want that person to die so soon, maybe you didn’t have a dad to tuck you in every night, or maybe the election didn’t turn out the way you think it should have. Whatever the situation, you didn't get what you wanted and what you thought you deserved. And not getting what you think should be yours leads to anger.

When it goes unchecked, this bad anger will poison your soul. And as the poison remains in your soul, it allows the devil to create a stronghold in your emotions. This stronghold causes you to hurt people, but not the people who made you angry. The sad truth is that when your heart is filled with anger, you hurt those closest to you. This anger makes you act the worst around those you love the most. Someone else made you angry, but it’s your family and friends who end up paying the price. An angry person is a hurting person, and hurting people hurt people.

Because you didn’t get what you thought was yours, you are still mentally waiting for justice to be served. You may know it’s not going to happen, but in the hidden depths of your heart, somebody still owes you something. And anger is that bill you carry around with you, waiting for them to pay. But here’s the good news: You can choose to cancel the debt and you don’t have to carry the bill around any longer! You can forgive them for what they owe you! In fact, that’s the only way to get rid of the debt. If you keep waiting to be paid, anger will continue to poison your soul. You have to forgive in order to move on.

Please understand that forgiveness is not a feeling, but a decision that frees you from anger. All you have to do is make the choice to cancel the debt. You don’t have to tell them. You don’t have to pay it yourself. You just have to release them from the obligation to pay you. As a saint, you don’t forgive because the other person deserves it, you forgive because you’ve been forgiven. If you have a hard time forgiving someone, you may have forgotten just how much God forgave you. Choose today to free yourself from the poison of anger and unforgiveness. Forgive those who kept you from getting what you wanted. Let it go, release them, and the anger will cease to exist.

Who should you forgive today?