Pastor Elwin Ahu
May 9, 2004 - W0419

We live in an angry world where every little thing seems to set us off. So today I will talk about the importance of controlling our anger since uncontrolled anger can disqualify the very blessings God has for us. In fact, it happened to Moses.

Q1:  How do you deal with your anger now?

Moses, was the son of a Hebrew slave, but raised by Pharaoh’s daughter so he was a very powerful guy. Then one day he saw an Egyptian fighting with another Hebrew slave.

“And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian…Moses fled…and after forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness…in the flame of a burning thorn bush.” (Acts 7:24,29-30)

Moses had the authority to bring this guy to justice. However, he went into a rage and killed this man. And because of that outburst of uncontrolled anger, he fled the country. As a result, he spent 40 years walking through the hot sand before God finally restored his family and his ministry. Yet his anger problems didn’t stop there. The Bible tells us how Moses led the people out of Egypt. Of course it wasn’t an easy task to manage two million people and lead them out of Egypt. That’s why whenever the people challenged and grumbled to Moses, he became frustrated and angry. In fact, it happened so many times until one day at Meribah it came to a head. The people wanted water and the Lord gave Moses specific instructions on how to get water out of this rock. He was to speak to it. Needless to say, Moses’ anger got the best of him. As a result, Moses called the people rebels and struck the rock with his staff. Water did flow from the rock, but he failed to follow God’s holy instructions. Therefore, that one act of uncontrolled anger disqualified him from entry into the Promised Land. Moses lost out on the very blessings God had waiting for him.

Q2: Have you ever acted out of anger and then regretted your outburst? What was the result and what have you learned from it?

 Someone once said, “When you fly into a rage, you seldom make a good landing”. I wonder how many blessings we’ve already forfeited because we couldn’t control our anger. That’s why I want to share will you three…KEYS TO CONTROLLING YOUR ANGER:

1.      ACKNOWLEDGE ANGER AS GOD’S WARNING SYSTEM.

Anger is a God-given emotion. That’s right! Many times we blame the devil for our feelings of anger. We think that anger is an evil emotion and we try to suppress it. However, God has woven this emotion into our spirit. And not only that, He’s made it into a warning system to alert us to potential disasters that may be ahead.

It’s sort of like the emergency broadcast system that is in place to warn and instruct us on what to do in case of an emergency or disaster. Or like the warning lights in our cars that give us a heads up when something is not working properly with our automobiles. And when we see one of these alerts, it’s our cue to check for instructions in the owner’s manual. 

The same is true with anger. That emotion alerts us to possible problems ahead. “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil opportunity.” (Eph. 4:26-27) Paul tells us that anger is present, we should acknowledge it, and then control it. We are not to hang on to unresolved anger. Otherwise we begin to compromise what God is saying and thus open up an opportunity for the devil. Opportunity comes from the Greek word, topos. It’s where we get the word topography from. It describes a huge land parcel. And when we let the sun go down on anger, essentially we open up ourselves like a huge land mass and give the devil an opportunity to come right in and control our lives. So pay attention to the warnings for the potential for sin is right around the corner.

Q3: There’s potential for sin if we are not careful in handling our anger.  Describe a time when the Lord gave you warning signs to alert you of potential trouble. Did you heed or disregard those warnings? What happened as a result and would you do anything different with what you learned today?

It even happened with Cain and Abel. “…So Cain became very angry and …the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Gen. 4:5-7) You see, Cain’s countenance warned him of imminent danger ahead. It was crouching at the door. However, it wasn’t yet in his heart, it was just waiting there. He had a choice: to heed the warnings given by his countenance or disregard it and proceed forward anyway. That he did and it indeed barred him from God’s blessings. I wonder how many times we are so angry that we too miss the promptings God gives us and instead advance full speed ahead. Then when we crash, we wonder what happened. The fact is, we fail to see the warning signs God posted during seasons of anger.

So the first step when you get angry is to acknowledge to the Lord that you’re angry. Ask Him what He is warning you about. What are things in our life that need to be revealed? Is it pride, selfishness, ungodly goals, or a responsibility that we must pay attention to? And once we take notice of that, the second point to remember is to…

2.      ELIMINATE THE COMBUSTIBLES.

We have a tendency to store up so much stuff in our homes and in our lives. When we run out of space in our home, we actually pay self-storage places to store our stuff. Many times it’s unnecessary. The same is true for our lives. We store up so many unresolved issues in our hearts especially when it comes to relationships. We bring up past situations. We even keep score on matters that are long gone. It seems that we recycle unresolved issues and explosive matters all the time. The fact remains that the more combustibles we accumulate without resolving it, the bigger the explosion and the bigger the flame. We must learn to eliminate things in our life that will flare up.

Q4: Do you feel that since you’ve forgotten about a past issue, it’s over? Why then do some issues seem to resurface with more intensity and you are afraid that one day you’ll explode?

There was a recycling plant that caught fire near our church office last week. It was a huge fire. There were old tires, cardboard boxes, etc. just piled in a heap. They speculate that while shredding some steel-belted radial tires, the blades sparked and one of those sparks jumped atop the pile of cardboard and the fire began.

We do the same thing in our lives, don’t we! We recycle issues that we never resolve. Then all it takes is a single spark for the whole thing to blow up. Many times the explosion happens at the point of least resistance. We tend to hurt the person who is not even a part of the initial problem. A lot of times it’s a child, our own children, our spouse, or even our friends.  People get hurt when we don’t take care of it. 

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (Eph. 4:31-32)

Now as I watched the firemen fighting that fire, I noticed they continued shooting water into the pile of rubble so I asked why? The captain said that though there were no flames, they were concerned with the center of the pile. For in it were hot spots. And if they didn’t get to that, the flames would flare up again.

Our hearts can sometimes have hot spots too. It will flare up from time to time when we least expect it because we haven’t dealt with the issues at the center of our hearts. Sure we are quick to extinguish the flames on the outside, but often we never take care of the core matter in our hearts. So in order that we don’t experience the same flare ups, we need the Holy Spirit to get to the center of our hearts. And it’s through daily devotions that the Lord will pour wisdom into our hearts. Otherwise, our hearts will become hardened and dry. Remember brush fires burn best in dry places. So if you don’t allow God’s Spirit to rain on your heart, God will never be able to reign in your heart. So make the time for daily devotions, it’s that important.

“When you forgive people for what they have done, I forgive them too…I do it in Christ’s presence…in order to keep Satan from getting the upper hand over us, for we know what his plans are.” (2Cor. 2:10-11 TEV)

There are spiritual principles you will learn as you do devotions, things like forgiveness. Take those principles and apply them proactively in situations you are in. And unless we learn it from Him, we won’t be able to apply it. Bear in mind that Satan is clever. If he knows we are storing combustible materials in our heart, he will rub us just enough to cause friction for a little spark to jump to our combustibles. In that way, the devil sits back and watches us burn each other. He doesn’t have to do a thing. However, when you allow the Holy Spirit to work in your lives and apply spiritual principles proactively, it’s like placing water over anything Satan may want to do. It will extinguish any fire.

Q5: How are your relationships? Do you tend to be frustrated and angry? Or are you allowing the Holy Spirit to guide with spiritual principles to apply to your life? Share with your group.

Once you begin to do that, you will understand why it’s so important that you not only acknowledge anger, but to eliminate things in your life that may cause an explosion. And finally, the third point to help you in seasons of anger is to…

3.      LET ANGER MOTIVATE YOU TOWARDS GOD’S BEST.

God is really trying to do two things in our lives. He’s trying work out of us those things that will hinder our Christian walk. And He’s also trying to work into us godly character and His nature. He leads us to certain goals using trials. And though we’ll experience frustrating situations, we cannot get caught up in the moment. God is leading us to our best. So just cooperate with Him and make some changes towards what God’s best is.

“The end of a matter is better than its beginning; patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit. Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools.” (Eccl. 7:8-9) In other words, if we cannot control our anger, it blinds us from where God is taking us. Remember that God is less concerned about where we’ve been in life and more concerned about where He’s taking us. Yet in order to get there, we have to make the adjustments.

“…Let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19-20) God has a righteous life with all His blessings waiting for us, but we have to make necessary changes in how we listen, speak, and even how we get angry. It’s so foolish to get angry about something yet not make an effort to change anything.

It happened with Joy and me early in our marriage. She’s a quiet person and I’m a person who loves to win, loves the argument. So when we had disagreements I wanted to argue it out, while Joy remained silent. And that frustrated me; I’d get angry. One day I thought I’m not getting anywhere. So I thought I’d begin doing daily devotions. During those moments with the Lord, I’d ask Him why our relationship was not getting anywhere. He’d tell me to change. “Change what?” I asked. He told me instead of arguing, just love her. And as I began to listen to my spiritual mentor, He taught me what to listen for. Yes we still have disagreements, but change took place and our relationship moved forward. The Lord guided and continues to guide me along the way. 

Q6: Changes are not easy, but so necessary. What kind of changes is God asking you to make in your life? Are you willing to cooperate with Him today?

Sometimes we need to make changes. When you become angry, ask God where He is leading you. What kind of relationship do you really want to have under God’s covering? In order to get to where God wants us to be, many times we need to make some changes and adjustments. Keep in mind that God will not change anything in our lives that we are willing to tolerate. For example, if we tolerate a bad marriage, get angry, and yet are not willing to make the necessary changes God asks us to, He won’t change that situation. The same is true for other areas in our lives like finances, job situations, etc.  God is concerned with where we are going and we need to cooperate with Him. God has His best for us. He offers His blessings -- the Promised Land. He has everything set aside. It’s up to us. So pay attention to your anger. It is God’s built in warning system that something is amiss. Then remove those things that may cause hot spots that eventually flare up and explode. And finally, cooperate with God and make the necessary changes that will guide you toward Gods’ best.

Final Q: What most impacted you about today’s lesson and how will you apply it to your life this week?