Anger is a seminal issue in all of our lives. How much time and energy is wasted on anger? How much damage does anger cause in our relationships with family, friends, and coworkers?
To quote a good friend, “Anger is the enemy of reason”. It distorts our thinking and causes more damage to relationships, whether at home or at work, than any other emotion. Paul lets us know that we are human and will get angry, but also states plainly in Ephesians 4:26, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger”.
I have concluded that, in my own life, if I resolve any anger issues I have before the sun sets, I no longer “harbor” this emotion and am relieved from the stress or grief that anger causes me. In my opinion, life is wasted on anger and, if we allow anger to control our emotions, our witness loses credibility.
In order to combat anger, here are some tangible antidotes:
1) Remember that anger is nothing more than anxiety over something that happened in the past that we no longer control. Anger is an emotion that you CAN control.
2) Anger is our enemy (used by our enemy) that destroys our reasoning ability. Take time to assess your anger and, as it says in James 1:19-20, ‘…be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God’.
3) And, most importantly, make sure you are resolving anger issues as they arise, doing your best not to harbor resentment or go to sleep with anger in your heart. Hold fast to Paul’s exhortation: “Do not let the sun go down on your anger”.