Handling Anger Series

For weeks, a couple had been arguing about buying a vehicle. He wanted a truck. She wanted a fast little sports car so she could zip through traffic around town. He would have been satisfied with any old, beat-up old truck, but everything she wanted was way out of their price range.

“Look!” she said. “I want something that goes from 0 to 200 in just a few seconds. Nothing else will do. My birthday is coming up, so surprise me!”

He did just that. For her birthday, he bought her a brand-new bathroom scale.

Nobody has seen or heard from him since (Dennis Reiling, Oskaloosa, Kansas).

We laugh, because the man probably deserved it. But anger is no laughing matter. Anger wreaks havoc in people’s lives, so learn to control it before it controls you. Learn to control it before it does irreversible damage not only in your life, but also in your family, your children, and in all your relationships.

The question is How? How can you learn to control you anger? How can you deal with the rage inside you? How can you handle the frustration that may have already wreaked havoc in your life? If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 4, Genesis 4, where we see God’s advice to Cain in handling His anger.

Genesis 4:6-7 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted [literally, be lifted up]? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it (ESV).

Control your anger. Control your sin before it controls you. How? Well, 1st of all, God says, “Do well.” That is, when you feel anger...

BEHAVE YOURSELF, and do what is right.

You cannot always control your feelings, but you can control what you do with your feelings. You can choose to do what’s right rather than what’s wrong. So, when you feel bad, do good, and eventually you’ll feel good, as well. In other words, don’t do what you feel; feel what you do. That’s what God tells Cain: If you want your face to be lifted up, i.e., if you want to feel joy again, then “do well.”

You see, anger leads to depression if it is not handled properly. In fact, clinical psychologist and Christian counselor, Dr. Paul Meier, says that anger is at the root of almost every depression. So when I’m depressed, I ask myself, “Who am I mad at?” And when I answer that question, I usually find the cause for my depression. Are you depressed? Then ask yourself, “Who am I mad at?” Figure out who it is, then “do what is right” to that person, and the right feelings will follow.

Do you need some suggestions about what to do? Then check out Romans 12. There in verse 14 it says, “Bless those who persecute you”—write them a “thank you” note. Verse 17 says, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all.” Verse 19: “Never avenge yourselves.” To the contrary, verse 20: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him”—bring him a plate of cookies. “If he is thirsty, give him something to drink”—how about a glass of milk to go with those cookies? Verse 21: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

If you do these things to the one you’re mad at, i.e., if you “do well,” then your face will be lifted up, your depression will be gone, and your joy will return. That’s God’s promise right here in Genesis 4:7 – “If you do well, will you not be [lifted up]?”

There was a boom, then the house shook. Daylan McLee thought it was a small earthquake. Then a relative came running inside to say there had been a car crash involving a police cruiser outside the apartment in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.

McLee ran outside and pulled an officer from the mangled patrol car as flames began to spread into the cabin. Police officials and others credited McLee with saving the officer’s life after the Sunday evening crash. McLee said it wasn’t a complicated decision to help another human being. “There is value in every human life, McLee said. “We are all children of God and I can’t imagine just watching anyone burn. No matter what other people have done to me, I thought, ‘this guy deserves to make it home safely to his family.’”

McLee saved the officer, in June 2020, despite having filed a lawsuit two years previously (2018) against four Pennsylvania State Police troopers for wrongful arrest. He had spent a year in jail related to a fight outside a bar in 2016. He had rushed to the bar after his sister called saying she needed a ride home because a fight had broken out. When McLee arrived, he disarmed a man who was standing in the parking lot with a gun and threw the weapon aside.