Anger: The Good, The Bad, The DestructiveSample

Thank you for subscribing to our series on Anger. Each reading plan has been designed to stand alone or be explored as part of this series. To make it easier for our subscribers, we've included links to the other plans in this series at the end of Day 8's devotion.

Our Angry World

No matter where you live or look in today’s world, you will find a lot of angry people. They’re mad at what happened yesterday and bitter about things that occurred years ago. They’re angry with their spouse, a co-worker, or a friend. Some people you encounter are angry and don’t even realize it. And then there are those who know they’re angry ... and just don’t care. 

Countless people have lost their marriages because of anger. Some have lost their children, their jobs, and their health—all because they let this one emotion get out of control and take over their entire lives. What they need is to be set free from the bondage of bitterness and resentment.

Perhaps you’re the angry one. Life didn’t turn out the way you planned, or someone you trusted betrayed you, hurt you, or let you down. The truth is, we all get mad at one time or another. It’s simply part of being human. But the question we need to ask ourselves is, What do I do with my anger—how should I deal with anger within myself and respond to it in others?

The first thing we must realize is that we live in an angry world. Like a windswept wildfire, anger leaves scorched lives and devastating loss in its wake. This emotion reaches into our families, our neighborhoods, our communities, across our nation, and around the world.

If we’re honest, many of us will admit to feeling a degree of anger deep inside that is greater these days than we’ve ever felt before. It’s not a question of if we’ve ever been angry—all of us have been angry at one time or another. And there’s no way to guarantee we’ll never get angry again. But the Bible gives us very clear instructions regarding how we should handle this powerful and potentially damaging emotion.

Anger in itself is not necessarily evil or destructive. There’s good anger and there’s bad anger. The problem is most people have more experience with bad anger than with good anger.

So let me ask you a question: Are you angry?

And if you are, do you know why?

As we are about to discover, anger can be a very dangerous thing.