DEALING WITH AND OVERCOMING ANGER: (Part 2)

No One Can Make You Angry:

NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU ANGRY:

We started a new series in Part one were we are seeking to deal with and overcome anger. This first step we covered is to face the real issues. I want to say that to face the real issues we have to admit the truth about our heart.

Here is the truth: No one can MAKE us angry. We are fully and totally responsible for our anger. Yes, we can be provoked. Yes, we can be mistreated, wronged, hurt or abused. Yes, we have the worse possible physical, emotional, or mental pain thrust upon us at no fault of our own. And yes, because of the wrong inflicted on us, we can say "we have every right to be angry." However, at the end of the day, we are always 100% responsible for how we feel and think. Otherwise, we would not stand before the Lord in the judgment alone, we would have to have all the people who offended us and hurt us there with us so we could justify our actions.

Although we might have been hurt beyond measure and totally inhumane, and far beyond what most can understand, we still need to know that we are totally responsible for all of our feelings. I cannot use the excuse "my children make me mad, my spouse makes me mad, or my boss makes me mad." They may provoke to anger, and many situations during the day will provoke us, but the choice to be angry always rests with me the individual. The same goes for any emotion. The choice to be happy, sad, upset, worried, fearful, and the list could go on and on, is my responsibility. I can be provoked to happiest, however the choice to be happy is still mine to make.

That is why God calls us overcomers and tells us that we are without excuse. We can overcome anything and stand before the Father boldly and honestly without trying to blame something or someone outside my skin for what is in our heart.

So in Part 1 we looked at how we are to... 
1. FACE THE REAL ISSUES:

Now we will touch on...
2.  DEALING WITH YOUR ANGER: Take ownership of your anger.

If we are always justifying or blaming others for our anger, we are telling God that He was wrong in 1 Cor.13:5 when He says that His love is not easily angered. If we blame something or someone outside of us then we are doing the same thing Adam did, saying the problem is not in our heart but with others and the world. "God, You fix the world outside of my skin and I won't be angry inside my skin." 

Unresolved anger is always bad and we SHOULD NOT come to the place of tolerating it as a natural part of our personality or who we are. Nor should we accept it as ownership like we have a right to possess it because of the hurt we have suffered. As a believer we do not have a right to be a victim to our past, nor do we get a free pass from God to excuse our anger. 

James 1:19-20 ESV Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; (20) for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

>>> Spend time confessing past Anger:

Anger from the past must be acknowledged and confessed. Amends need to be made. Forgiveness for silent or open anger must be made. We also need to ask forgiveness for not loving them as we should have. Just like driving a vehicle, stop fixing your gaze in the rearview mirror of life. The believer's life lies in the present and future, because the past is dead and buried.

>>> Repent From Present Anger:

Anger in the present and future must be cut off. You must recognize that anger is not going to accomplish the righteousness of God. You will need to confess that you have been responding to your own selfish desires and have focused on your own will and life, and not on God's will and purpose. After all, the biggest reason we hold on to anger is that it is our only means of payback or vengeance against those who wronged us. It is our way of getting even. However, the Word of God says that vengeance belongs to Him.

To Be Continued...