Everyone faces the issue of anger in their life; whether its anger that lashes out at someone, anger that is pent up inside or anger you wear on your face. Unresolved anger can become a very deadly poison in a person’s life. It can rob them of peace, healthy relationships and can be a leading cause in the body’s breakdown. A great deal of inflammation in the body can be caused by an unending work of deep seated anger; affecting the cardiovascular system, immune system, joints and other body systems negatively.
Admitting you get angry or have anger battles is the first step.
But what does the anger battles you have say about you? Here are some clear insights you can understand about yourself when it comes to the anger that is working in your life.
1. You Have Passion
There is anger there most likely because you have a passion, opinion or strong conviction about an issue or many issues. Congratulations, you have some convictions about life and how things could be better. Anger at first is not always sinful. In fact, the Bible even says in Ephesians 4:26, “be angry … but do not sin.” In other words, unresolved or unharnessed anger can be deadly, but when it first rises up, it’s a sign that you have some passion.
Utilizing that passion for good, to bring change to what stirs your heart can be a great thing. For many, their anger wiped them out into an emotional coma, because they were tired of feeling their anger and subsequently shut down. This often means they did nothing about addressing the anger and using that passion to help bring change to the world.
What makes you angry? Quite often that anger links to something you are passionate about that God can use you to bring change to.
2. You Have Hurt
The reason anger is flaring up is often because of hurt that lies within the heart. Anger quite often comes in to defend our deep places of hurt. What you are angry about leads a trail back to a place of hurt in your life that may not be resolved just yet.
We often take out anger on a person or situation, when in reality, the anger is not really about them, its about an unresolved hurt that is finding any target to lash at. These past hurts often go back to father wounds, mother wounds or relational breaches that have never been healed before God.
3. You May Have Bitterness
Anger is a part of the armor of bitterness and has a goal to create a toxic world in your life and relationships. Bitterness seeks to defile you and everyone around you; doing so by taking areas of anger and keeping them festering in your life so that you damage others and erode your own inner peace.
Bitterness links up when we do not resolve our anger issues. For example, the Bible teaches in Ephesians 4:26 us to not let the sun go down on our wrath. When we go to bed angry without any attempt to heal, we will have bitterness at work in the morning when we get up. Slowly but surely, this bitter root will take shape and create a toxicity in your spirit, soul and body.
There’s nothing wrong with being a little angry about something at first, but when it stays without release, forgiveness and resolution, we have an enemy within called bitterness.
4. You Have an Idol
Because anger ties back to a hurt, it is important to understand that the anger you struggle with is often protecting and defending the hurt in your life. Whenever someone does not meet the desires of your need or violates the emotional expectation you have on them, anger rises up to demand that people pay attention to what bothers you. This anger is defending a stronghold that becomes idolatrous. In other words, you cannot function unless that particular expectation you have be met in your surroundings.
For example, you may have control issues in your life, because having a sense of control makes you feel “safe.” When people make you feel out of control, anger rises up against them. Why does the anger rise up? Because deep down inside, there is an idolatrous place that says, “You have to stay within my realm of control in order for me to feel safe.” This keeps you locked from ever getting free from your anger battles.
At the end of the day, we cannot let anger come and rule our sense of well being. In the love of God, we must learn to cast down those stubborn places that guard our hurts and let God heal our pain. When God heals our hurts, we lose the need to defend those wounded places. Instead, we allow Him to heal so that we trust in Him to become our protector, our deliverer and our source.
Question: What helps you to overcome areas of anger in your life?