Your Anger Makes Me Mad (1)

He’s angry so I get angry. She’s angry so I get angry. They are angry so we get angry. It feels natural. It feels deserved. It feels kind of good. And discussion centers on who has the real right to be angry!

The Spirit moved James to write this wisdom: “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (Ja 1:19-20). We’re not good at being angry. It doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. That’s a problem because the righteousness of God is ALL we ant to produce in our lives!

The Proverbs are full of Divine warnings and advice about our anger that can help us diffuse anger and respond in godly ways.

Slow down. The danger of being quick tempered.

"A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a man of wicked intentions is hated." Proverbs 14:17

"He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly." Proverbs 14:29

See anger’s danger and damage.

"An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man abounds in transgression." Proverbs 29:22

"A wrathful man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger allays contention." Proverbs 15:18:

"Wrath is cruel and anger a torrent, but who is able to stand before jealousy?" Proverbs 27:4

Value self-control.

"He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city." Proverbs 16:32

"The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression." Proverbs 19:11

"Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls." Proverbs 25:28

Environment control helps with anger control

"A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:1

"Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul." Proverbs 22:24-25