![]() ![]() You feel trapped, smothered, and controlled. These are normal things I thought were pretty good. And just laugh with me in your mind because we don’t think we have anger as an issue. I love the little lists because when we put this together there’s a lady who’s a psychologist that wrote a couple books for Intervarsity and she listed common reasons why all of us feel angry. Have you ever been angry when you were unfairly treated, or someone blames you, or you were ignored or misunderstood, or felt insignificant, or someone made fun of you, or you were given advice? You ever done something and someone walks up and just tells you, “This is how you ought to do that.” And you have this emotion side going…you know? You didn’t feel safe. It’s just, you go out to dinner one night, you come back, and your house is in ashes. And some people blow up, and some people, it’s just like they have a short in the wiring and you know what? When there’s a short in the wiring you can’t even tell anything’s wrong. You just give a big gift by faith and then you find out that forty percent of your net income goes down the drain in about three or four months, and you get angry. Some people are prone under pressure: financial pressure, relational pressure, screaming kids, you know, you've just done the floor and now the dog goes over the floor, you just did the laundry and now there are seven more piles, you just gave your best shot at work and you get laid off when someone who hasn't been there very long gets to stay. This was written to people under pressure. Under pressure we are all prone to blow a fuse or burn the house down. We’re going to talk about the shame and the guilt and the other emotions that those angry feelings that every human being has that are normal – but they ruin relationships if you don’t identify what they are, how to deal with them, and then how to turn them in a way where God can work in your heart instead of us spewing, or stuffing, or leaking out our anger in ways that destroy our relationship with God and others. And we’re going to talk about anger and how to deal with it. And the great majority of people don’t even know they’re angry. When I am frustrated, when I’m wounded, when there’s an unmet need, when someone ticks me off, when someone cuts in front of me in traffic, when I don’t have enough money, when God doesn't come through, when my expectations aren't fulfilled – emotions begin to bottle up and we get angry and we express it in very, very different ways that we’ll look at. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” And then he gives us the purpose clause: Why? “For the anger of man does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” That single verse launched a series in my life called “Overcoming Emotions that Destroy.” They were persecuted.Īnd so, James would say after considering it all joy in chapter 1 verse 19. They were cut out of the family business. They were dispersed abroad, they believed in the Messiah and as a result, many of them lost their homes. In fact, it was during a very difficult time, first book of the New Testament, where Jesus’ half brother would address people who were going through tremendous pressure and difficulty. Our emotions.ĭesigned as a gift from God there are times, places, and circumstances that bring out emotions that destroy. What has that kind of power to turn normal human beings who, on most days, are good people to be around, into people that shut down? Into people that leak anger? Into people that explode it? And I would suggest that the first word you want to write down in your notes, the answer is: our emotions. What has the power to turn a festive holiday family gathering into a gut twisting, name calling, take sides, no-holds-barred family feud that never gets resolved? And finally, what has the power to take a cool, calm, collected, long-time conscientious worker into a gun carrying, floor-by-floor-by-floor bullet spraying murderer that no one ever dreamed was even upset, as he expressed the bottled up anger of losing his job? ![]() What has the power to transform the tender heart of a loving mother into a beast of fury as I watched her sling her eighteen-month-old baby into the front of a dryer and slam the little one down in a chair? What has the power to turn loving parents into neck bulging, vein popping, screaming adults who say the same thing over and over into the blank stares of their elementary and teenage kids? What has the power to turn good friends and passionate lovers into cold, calculated, critical marriage co-existers who only do what’s absolutely necessary to live under the same roof? ![]()
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