Anger Management

by Bud Lambert

God created us with the ability to feel angry. It is a natural and powerful emotion. It can be good, but it can also be sinful. Christians must learn to properly manage their anger to avoid sin. One way to manage anger is to examine our thinking and make sure our thinking is correct.
Anger generally occurs whenever we're hurt and we think it's not fair that we're hurt. For example, few people would become angry if a baby hurt them by hitting them on the nose. We don't expect a baby to know any better. However, most people would become angry if an adult came up and hit them on the nose. We expect adults to know better. Our thinking greatly affects our feelings.
There are two types of anger: appropriate and inappropriate. Appropriate anger is when we're hurt and our thinking that the hurt is unfair (not right) is correct. Another name for appropriate anger is righteous indignation. Nehemiah had this type anger when he saw the Jewish nobles and officials taking unfair advantage of their Jewish kinsmen ( Nehemiah 5:1-13): When I heard their out cry and these charges, I was very angry...So I continued, .What you are doing is not right" (vs. 6, 9). In Ephesians 4:26, we are commanded to have this type anger: be angry, and sin not. The Greek verb is in the imperative mood - - a command. It is good for Christians to feel angry about unrighteousness.
Inappropriate anger is when we're hurt and our thinking that the hurt is unfair is incorrect. Two, crooked ways of thinking that can set us up to be hurt and experience inappropriate anger are 1. selfish thinking and 2. perfectionist
thinking. A selfish thinking person becomes angry when things don't go the way they want. They think things should always be done their way, and when it doesn't, they're hurt and become angry. A perfectionistic thinking person becomes angry when someone makes a mistake. They think people shouldn't make mistakes, and when they do, it hurts them and they become angry.

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