Wr4th Series

By the time I sought help for my drinking, I was consumed with anger. I controlled it and had fun but whenever something happened that I didn’t like, I responded with anger.

When I was twenty, I found out that I had never truly given God the control of my life. When I did that, God relieved my of the obsession to drink immediately. I have said that I had a lot of issues to work out. And anger was one of them.

I began to learn why I was angry. Many times it was because I was afraid. I saw how deeply rooted this problem was. I also learned to feel other emotions and not cover them with anger. And I learned what to do with my anger.

It has taken lots of time, work, prayer, and help from others. But I can honestly stand here and say to you that today, I am no longer a slave to anger.

I have learned from God that anger is not sinful. It is what you do with it. Paul says in Ephesians 4:26-27, "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” In other words, deal with the anger before you go to bed. When we don’t, things begin to pile up. In relationships whether they are parent and child, siblings, spouses, friends, neighbors, or coworkers, we need to deal with those issues and talk about them ASAP. After all, we all get angry. Right? How many of you have gotten angry? This morning?

Jesus got angry. Paul got angry. God gets angry. What do we do with that anger?

I have met couples that have issues they have never truly taken time to iron out. Every time something happens that angers the other person, it is not addressed and these become bricks in a wall that gets higher and higher. Each little thing becomes fuel for the fire so that by the time people come to me, they each feel like they are hitting their heads against a wall. And they are? Walls can be torn down. But not overnight. But it can and has been done.

It took time for me to tear down the wall of anger that I had surrounded myself with. And even after twenty years of trying to the wall of anger and build bridges of love, sometimes I respond with anger just because that was so ingrained in me.

We aren’t perfect, just repentant.

If we don’t deal with it and there are many who never do, then we are in trouble. I’ve met people who have gone to church their entire lives that have problems with anger and never deal with it. Attending church every Sunday and even three times a week is a wonderful thing but it does not guarantee that we will deal with some of these issues.

1 John 4:19-21 says, “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

So what do we do?

Getting off the Path of Wrath

• Christ-awareness

Just being aware that God is in control and being aware of God being at work around you can be incredibly liberating. To realize that you don’t have to control everything will certainly lower your frustration threshold and save you a lot of grief let alone anger and resentments. Giving God these moments past and present even if we have to do it several times is certainly rest for a weary soul. It begins with a choice that you make to follow Jesus and his ways. You can make that choice for the first time and or again at any time including this moment. For that is what worship is all about: I give you my all including all my praise.