Anger and Hostility

“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.

Ephesians 4:26-27

Anger is an often misunderstood emotion. Playing the good, always happy Christian prevents many people from expressing the truth about feeling angry. We’re afraid that it’s unholy to be mad. I can assure you, it’s totally cool to lose your cool. Anger is not a sin unless you sin in your anger.  

The problem lies more in the way we respond to, process, or fail to process anger than our actual experiencing of the emotion. We have to stop shoving everything under the rug. It’s creating a tipping point that either erupts little by little or all at once in extreme destruction. Either way, you and those who care most about you wind up on the losing end. Instead, try this: 

1. Admit that you have anger. 
2. Distinguish between healthy anger and destructive anger. 
3. Allow yourself to have anger without feeling shame or guilt.  
4. Understand what/who it is that causes the anger. 
5. Identify who it is that you’re taking your anger out on. 
6. Confess your anger to God, and repent. 
7. Ask forgiveness.  
8. Deconstruct your source of anger to uncover its root cause. 
9. Seek freedom from past pains, inner vows, judgments, and soul ties that radiate hate. 
10. Speak power over your healing by praying for God’s light to eliminate the darkness that breeds anger.

When we walk outside of God’s grace, there is a spirit of anger and hostility because we are not practicing the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Instead, we’re bound by the negative effects of anger over unhealed pain.

Call To Action  

1. Write out in detail describing the last time you went to bed angry. Explain what caused the anger, how you felt while lying in bed, how your feelings or thoughts shifted through the night and whether your attitude changed once the anger was processed.  
2. Write out in detail how you process your anger.  
3. Write out a list of the eight anchors. Fill in next to each of those how they affect you, and what you will do to overcome their hold.