27/02/2018
How can I conquer anger?
Insights About Conquering
Anger
seeing anger for what it is and doing
something about it
Anger destroys relationships and
generates violence in the home, on the
street, and in the community. Scripture
warns, “Wherefore, my beloved
brethren, let every man be swift to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the
wrath of man worketh not the
righteousness of God ” (James 1:19–20).
Christians are to walk in the Spirit of
God, by the grace of God, yielding
themselves to righteousness instead of
to the bo***ge of sin. “ Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body,
that ye should obey it in the lusts
thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto
sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as
those that are alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God. For sin shall
not have dominion over you: for ye are
not under the law, but under
grace” (Romans 6:12–14).
The following insights offer keys to
resolving anger.
Accept personal responsibility for
your anger.
God holds us accountable for our
thoughts, words, and actions, and
we will give an account to Him for
each of them. (See Romans 14:12.)
Accepting personal responsibility
for anger requires you to agree
with God that your anger is
wrong. If you justify anger, try to
explain it away, or blame others
for it, you will not be able to
conquer it.
See anger through the
experiences of those who are
damaged by it.
Ask immediate family members to
recall times when you got angry at
them and how they felt about it.
Don’t justify what you did or try to
explain your real intentions.
Simply listen. Begin to understand
the emotional hurts they
experienced through your raised
voice, sharp words, and attitude
of rejection.
Act quickly to resolve past
offenses.
Anger is an emotional explosion
that results from a buildup of
tension. Tension builds if past sins
are unresolved. We tend to react
in anger toward others when they
do the very things we have been
guilty of doing in the past.
Clearing your conscience can give
you freedom from past guilt,
fewer reasons to get angry, and a
better understanding of others.
Acknowledge the anger of your
forefathers.
If your parents gave way to anger,
you may experience unexplained
surges of anger also. In Exodus
20:5–6 God warns that sin
patterns are passed on to future
generations. It is vital to
acknowledge to God the moral
failures of your parents and trust
God for victory over the negative
influences that they may have
passed on to you. (See Daniel 9:1–
19 and Nehemiah 1:5–11.)
Regain surrendered “ground.”
The Apostle Paul warns us in
Ephesians 4:26–27, “Be ye angry,
and sin not: let not the sun go
down upon your wrath: neither
give place to the devil.” Every time
you allow anger to turn to wrath,
you give Satan permission to
torment you. He builds
strongholds of false ideas on that
ground and uses those lies to
torment your soul with
destructive emotions such as
unfounded fears, tension,
depression, unexplained anger,
lust, self-rejection, and pride.
Confess the sins that caused
the anger. (See I John 1:9.)
Stop justifying your anger
and blaming others for it.
Try to trace the anger back
to the sins that produced
the tension and guilt.
Claim the cleansing power of
the blood of Christ over the
power of sin. (See I John
1:7.)
Ask God to take back the
ground you surrendered
and to enable you to tear
down the strongholds of
false ideas that Satan has
constructed. (See II
Corinthians 10:4–5.)
Fully forgive your offenders.
Just as God forgave your
enormous debt (sin), you should
forgive others for the
comparatively minor offenses that
they have committed against you.
(See Matthew 18:21–35.)
Learn to see the potential
benefits from anger-causing
events.
Responding well to frustrations
can build character into your life,
increase your maturity, and
increase your sensitivity to others
who are facing similar situations.
Place personal rights under God’s
control.
When someone violates our
personal rights, we tend to get
angry. Can you identify which of
your rights was violated the last
time you got angry? Yield your
personal rights and possessions
to God. Then you will no longer be
the owner, but rather, you will be
the steward of what belongs to
God.
God loves you and He takes good
care of His property. When
something happens to God’s
property, He is able to work good
through it. Surrendering your
rights to God frees you from a
reason to be angry, because God
is trustworthy to work all things
together for good. (See Romans
8:28.)
Establish a structure of
accountability.
If you are serious about
conquering anger, become
accountable to those around you
for daily victory. Remember that
God is holding you accountable
too. “For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of
Christ; that every one may receive
the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done,
whether it be good or bad” (II
Corinthians 5:10).
Purpose to walk in the Spirit.
There is a struggle to overcome
anger, because even for
Christians, responses to conflicts
in life are often natural, fleshly
responses. These fleshly
responses are always
contradictory to the direction of
the Holy Spirit. Wrath is one of the
negative behaviors that should
have no place in a believer’s life,
because by God’s grace we are to
walk in the Spirit, producing the
fruit of the Spirit. (See Galatians
5:16–25.)
When you surrender to God and
obey the direction of His Holy
Spirit, your life will not be marked
by anger, envy, immorality, or
other sins. Instead, you will
abound in “love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance: against such there is
no law. And they that are Christ’s
have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts. If we live in
the Spirit, let us also walk in the
Spirit ” (Galatians 5:22–25).
“For ye were sometimes darkness,
but now are ye light in the Lord:
walk as children of light: (For the
fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness
and righteousness and truth;)
proving what is acceptable unto
the Lord. And have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of
darkness , but rather reprove
them” (Ephesians 5:8–11).