Ephesians 3:14-19 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;
Tthat ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth,
and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
God has given all of us the ability to become angry . It can be a productive thing, if allowed to do its proper work. It can lead to reformation and restoration when one allows it to give right direction. But, if we hold on to anger and do not let it lead us into a productive response, it can become very dangerous.
Let’s take a look at what Paul said about it in Ephesians 4:26. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. This, in its most simple interpretation, means: “Don’t go to bed angry.” If we just get this much from the verse, it will serve us well. It must be, that if we allow anger to remain in us through a night of sleep, something can settle into our spirit that we’ll find very hard to shake off. That’s when anger becomes dangerous.
Some people are able, because of their personality type, to keep anger under control and just let it simmer beneath the surface. The problem with this is that it may explode at some time much later—even years later—and do some really terrible damage. There are people in prison today because they let anger stay in them through the night and it just settled into them waiting for an opportune time.
There are two things to do with anger. One, let it lead to something productive, like the woman who formed MAAD—”Mothers Against Drunk Driving.” The other is a simple response: forgive. This may take a lot of grace. But remember, there was enough grace in God’s bosom to forgive you. That didn’t even make a dent in the wonderful supply. He can supply far more grace than you need to forgive those who did you wrong.
DEAR LORD, for as long as I can remember, I’ve been angry. I grew up that way. But I sure don’t like being angry all the time. It’s ruining my life. Today, I renounce this anger that has controlled me. I call on You for the grace to let go of it. I just want to start loving people instead of finding all their faults.
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