Alba 8-12-13 (Revised 9-25-2022)
HELP ME GOD, I'M ANGRY
In his autobiography, “Number 1”, Billy Martin told about hunting in Texas with Mickey Mantle. Mickey had a friend who would let them hunt on his ranch. When they reached the ranch, Mickey told Billy to wait in the car while he checked in with his friend.
Mantle's friend quickly gave them permission to hunt, but he asked Mickey a favor. He had a pet mule in the barn who was going blind, and he didn't have the heart to put him out of his misery. He asked Mickey to shoot the mule for him.
When Mickey came back to the car, he pretended to be angry. He scowled and slammed the door. Billy asked him what was wrong, and Mickey said his friend wouldn't let them hunt.
"I'm so mad at that guy," Mantle said, "I'm going out to his barn and shoot one of his mules!" Mantle drove like a maniac to the barn. Martin protested, "We can't do that!" But Mickey was adamant. "Just watch me," he shouted.
When they got to the barn, Mantle jumped out of the car with his rifle, ran inside, and shot the mule. As he was leaving, though, he heard two shots, and he ran back to the car. He saw that Martin had taken out his rifle, too.
"What are you doing, Martin?" he yelled. Martin yelled back, face red with anger, "We'll show him! I just killed two of his cows!
Anger can be dangerously contagious. As Proverbs 22:24-25 puts it, "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.”
Will Rogers said, "Whenever you fly into a rage, you seldom make a safe landing." And he was right. Chuck Swindoll said, "I got so angry that I gave him a piece of my mind. And it was a piece that I couldn’t afford to lose."
There used to be a TV show called the, "The Incredible Hulk." The main character was a scientist named Dr. David Banner. Most of the time he was a nice guy.
But when he became angry he would repeat those famous words, “Don’t make me angry, you wouldn’t like me when I am angry.” And if the person ignored his warning, right before your eyes he would transform into Lou Ferrigno, a big green monster.
The whole series was built around Dr. Banner's search for a cure. Dr. Banner didn’t like what anger did to him, and he did all he could to prevent it from happening.
Anger is not something that has to be taught. Go to the nursery and find the sweetest baby girl in that nursery.
Take away the bottle from that sweet little girl, or don’t change her diaper on cue, and you will see anger such as you seldom see elsewhere. You will see a red face contorted with rage, and you will hear sounds that penetrate the walls.
Anyone can be angry. The old can become angry as well as the young. The rich and the poor - all people have the capability to become angry. If I were to ask, of all the human emotions you're capable of experiencing, with which one does it seem to be the most difficult for you to cope?
I believe that the majority of us would say that dealing with the emotion of anger is the most complex and challenging of them all on a day-in day-out basis.
Anger can and will surface at the strangest times, brought about for the strangest of reasons, and exhibited in the strangest ways.
Anger, if not handled properly, can be a very dangerous and destructive emotion. It can be hurtful to us physically, emotionally, relationally and spiritually.
There is always a price tag for improperly handling anger. Anyone who has experienced an incident when they let their anger get the best of them will admit that the actions committed in that kind of anger are later regretted.
That's the reason that we need to cry out, “God help me, I'm angry.”
But wait a minute. If we ask God to help us deal with our anger, how will that help us? Because I read in the Bible that God also gets angry. Yes...
1. God Gets Angry
Look in the scriptures: Numbers 32:13 “So the Lord’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone.”
And I Kings 11:9-10 “9 So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, 10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded.”
With these verses, and others like them, it is obvious that anger is a God given emotional response.
Even Jesus became angry. Look at Mark 3:4-6. “4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent.
“5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.”
The Pharisees had lost their compassion for others. They did not care about the condition of the man with the withered hand. All that mattered was maintaining legalistic obedience to the letter of the law.
They believed their traditions were more important than easing the pain or meeting the needs of another human being. They had forgotten that " the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." Mark 2:27.
Jesus looks at them in anger. He is stirred with indignation at what He sees in them because He recognizes their compassion-less “rule keeping” mindset. But notice how Jesus expressed His anger.
-He did not explode in a rage.
-He did not call down fire from heaven on them in wrath.
-He did not allow a resentful anger to smolder down inside Him.
-He didn't suppress His anger.
Jesus chose to channel His anger into carefully chosen words and to care for a man in need, demonstrating the proper response that should be given.
And while God does get angry it is for righteous reasons. And also scripture shows us that God will not be angry forever.
Isaiah 57:15-19 (NIV) reports God saying:
15For this is what the high and exalted One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy:“I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16 I will not accuse them forever, nor will I always be angry, for then they would faint away because of me—the very people I have created.
17 I was enraged by their sinful greed; I punished them, and hid my face in anger, yet they kept on in their willful ways. 18 I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners, 19 creating praise on their lips.
I am so glad to know that God's mercy is greater than His anger.
But if even God gets angry....
2. Why Do I Need Help?
Is it really necessary for me to cry out, “God help me, I'm angry” when I'm just expressing a God-given emotion? Well, here's the problem. Look at James 1:19-20 (New American Standard) “Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
Our anger has been compared to the combustible explosions in a car engine that produces the power to make the car move. When those explosions are under control, they will take the car safely to its destination.
But,... if instead of controlling the flow of gas producing these orderly explosions -- we ignited all the gas in the tank at once -- we'd blow up both the car and ourselves.
Proverbs 14:17 (NIV) says, "A quick-tempered man does foolish things." We already knew that because we’ve experienced that in our own lives.
Some may blame their quick temper on their red hair. Or they may blame it on their heritage, “After all, I'm Irish”, or something like that. They may even be proud of it.
But the bottom line is, if we have a short fuse, we’re going to do a lot of foolish things. When we lose our temper we’ll say things we know we shouldn’t have said, and do things that we’re going to be sorry for later on.
Our problem is that we seldom become angry for the right reasons or motives. Human anger tends to be self-motivated rather than God-motivated.
As a result, anger is like a fire. If the fire is controlled, it can be helpful and productive, but if the fire gets out of control it can be harmful and deadly. Anger is the same way!
Though anger is a natural emotion, we must be careful how we use it because it can have devastating effects.
A driver in Philadelphia shot another driver on the highway. There was a construction blockage on the road, narrowing traffic down to only one lane, creating long backups as cars from each direction took turns getting past the blockage.
Well, this driver patiently waited his turn. But just as he was about to get past the blockage, a car came up fast on the shoulder, passing all the waiting cars, and crowded just in front of him.
Then after doing that, the driver turned around with a smirk on his face and made an obscene gesture.
Well, that infuriated the first driver. So when traffic was stopped at the next construction bottleneck, he got out of his car, took out his gun and shot that man in front of him to death.
Now, of course, we wouldn’t do anything like that. But have you ever lost your temper? Do you ever do things you wish you hadn’t done, or say things you wish you had never said?
Well, the Bible has something to say about overcoming anger. Proverbs 19:11 says, “The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, And his glory is to overlook a transgression.
Now there is the secret, isn’t it? If someone offends us, and if we are persons of wisdom (God’s wisdom), can we overlook it, and not allow the situation to become a major event that overwhelms us?
In Proverbs 16:32 having patience and a controlled temper is honored above being a great warrior. It says, "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city."
In a land where safety depended on might and skill in warfare, this statement may seem surprising. Yet conquering oneself (14:17, 29; 25:28; 29:11) is of greater virtue than conquering a city.
If we are slow to anger, or are self-controlled, we possess an ability so great in God's eyes that it's more valuable than the ability to defeat an entire city.
Dr. David Seamands said, “Anger is a divinely implanted emotion. Closely allied to our instinct for right, it is designed to be used for constructive spiritual purposes. The person who cannot feel anger at evil is a person who lacks enthusiasm for good. If you cannot hate wrong, it is very questionable whether you really love righteousness. To not express anger is to not be human."
Anger is a normal emotion. It is not in God's purpose to eliminate the ability to get angry. He put it in us to begin with. But He cautions us in Ephesians 4:26-27 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil.”
26 "In your anger do not sin": (NIV)
26 Be angry BUT do not sin; (RSV)
26 Be ye angry, AND sin not: (KJV)
The point is.. it is possible to be angry and not sin. Anger in and of itself is not bad, God created anger for a good purpose – with good intentions.
Sometimes it's good for us to get angry. It's why we get angry and how we express it that determines if it's good or bad, healthy or unhealthy anger.
Scripture says that it IS possible to control our emotions, to be good AND mad. Maybe an infusion of anger is the very thing that the church needs. To become angry at the corruption of the world. To become angry at the forces of evil.
To become angry at pornography that reaches into every segment of society. To become angry at the increase in crime and murders and rapes. To become angry at the abuse of alcohol and drugs in our society. To become angry because there are millions of people who are dying and going to Christ-less graves.
It is time for the church to become angry, with a sanctified anger, a holy anger, that is channeled in the right places. That's what God did with His anger at our sin. He sent Jesus to provide the cure and to take the punishment for our sins.
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, people were shouting at Him, "If you really are the Son of God come down from the cross."
Many of them may have been people He had touched in a very direct way during His ministry. I am sure that He was hurt by that, but He didn’t become angry. In fact, He prayed for their forgiveness.
That's how God dealt with His anger. When we compare that reaction to most of ours, we fail by comparison. So yes, we still need to cry out, “God help me, I'm angry,” because all too often our anger has nothing to do with God's purposes in our lives.
God has given us His Word and His Spirit to work in us to enable us to harness and take control over our anger so it becomes a positive and not a negative force in our life. He wants us "to be angry and sin not sin."
CLOSING:
Have you ever noticed that sometimes we get angry and remain bitter with people and actually forget why we’re so upset?
Take, for example, the notorious Hatfield-McCoy feud. It hit newspaper front pages in the 1880’s, when the Hatfield clan feuded with the McCoy clan from across the border in Kentucky.
Historians disagree on the cause of the feud -- which captured the attention of the nation during a 10-year run.
Some cite Civil War tensions: McCoys sympathized with the Union, Hatfields with the Confederacy.
Others say it began when the McCoys blamed the Hatfields for stealing hogs.
As many as 100 men, women and children died.
In May 1976, Jim McCoy and Willis Hatfield -- the last two survivors of the original families -- shook hands at a public ceremony dedicating a monument to six of the victims.
McCoy died Feb. 11, 1984, at age 99. He bore no grudges -- and had his burial handled by the Hatfield Funeral Home in Toler, KY.
Aren't you glad that God is able and willing to forget His anger at the sin in our lives. So Ephesians 4:32 tells us, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
