S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

Handling anger is an important life skill. Christian counselors report that 50 percent of people who come in for counseling have problems dealing with anger. Anger can shatter communication and tea...

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July 01 2013 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

Anger in the Old Testament translates the Hebrew word “’aph” -- אַף (“nostril”) which one may picture as an angry man with flared nostrils! It is used 45 times of human anger and 177 times of divine anger. The actual word “anger’ infrequently occurs in the New Testament (Mark 3:5; Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8; and Revelation 14:10). But “wrath” appears more often.

In Proverbs, men are discouraged from becoming angry (Proverbs 15:1; 27:4) and the “slow to become angry” are elevated/praised (Proverbs 15:8; 16:32; 19:11). Christians are ordered to put away vindictive, vengeful anger (Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8) and to harbor no feeling/desire for personal revenge (Ephesians 4:26). 

Someone once said, “Energy spent in getting even is better spend in getting ahead.” Another quote about anger follows: 

“Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back--in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.” - Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, Transformed by Thorns, p. 117.

February 18 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report