Spiritual Warfare: Unchecked Anger

This week we continue to answer the following question: How does God’s enemy come after His people and His leaders for the sole purpose of distracting, disrupting and derailing them from being involved in God's great mission?

As we survey Pauline literature we will discover fourteen tactical strategies that the enemy will use to come after God's people along with specific antidotes in addressing that problem.  See the introduction to this series to receive an overview of this subject.

"An angry leader is a scared leader or a hurt leader or a frustrated leader but most of all they are a vulnerable leader."  Gary Rohrmayer

6. Unchecked Anger

Text: Ephesians 4:25-27 - Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. "In your anger do not sin"^: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Problem: “Satan can use anger in life to gain inroads into life and eventually control that life through the anger.” J. Robert Clinton

Antidote: “Get help if anger controls you. This may require inner healing. Also, recognize the benefits of anger.”  J. Robert Clinton

Reflective Questions:

1. What are the triggers of anger that easily beset you?

• Hurts or Offends?
• Fear or Worry?
• Frustrations or Misunderstandings?

2. What does James say that man’s anger produces? (James 1:20)

3. What are the ways you naturally express anger?

• Do you silently stuff those feelings?
• Do you explosively express those feelings?

4. What can the church do to better protect itself from the grip of the enemy around this issue?

5. List the qualifications of elders and deacon that speak to the issue of emotional maturity in I Timothy

    3:1-11; Titus 1:5-9

6. When is righteous anger warranted and how should it be expressed?

Prayer: Father in Heaven, grant us wisdom to understand the triggers of anger that so easily beset our souls; that distract Your mission and hinder Your church.  Teach us how to appropriately express our anger that leads to emotional health and relational intimacy.  Father, help us to be humble enough to seek help when we are under the grip of the enemy and stuck in our anger.  Teach us to keep short accounts and to speak the truth in love.  Keep our hearts soft in your grace and not hard with anger.  Father, grant us the grace to get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Father, give us the power to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave us.  In the precious name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, Amen.

Next week: Sickness and Disabilities

To view the entire series of posts on Spiritual Warfare

Comments

[TJF]

Thank you for this concise and powerful post. I believe it is a much bigger problem than we want to admit to. For me one of the ways to "get help" for anger is to have a very trusted friend who can walk with me in and through the anger and/or disappointment. The problem for some of us is that there is no one we can truly be real with, that is just be ourselves, good and bad. This acceptance is so important. If we don't have someone we can talk to confidentially, then we tend to stuff our anger and then it grows until it bursts out inappropriately.

[Gary]

Thanks for your honesty ... handling anger appropriately is always a challenge.

[SNAPPIN_MIN]

Thanks for this timely post, Gary! This is a powerful reminder with self-examination. I just shared with a friend this weekend that the very things that can make us good leaders can be our very undoing. Inappropriately expressed anger is one of those things. I, for one, will be dealing with that sin until I get to meet Jesus in heaven!

[Gary Rohrmayer]

Thanks for the encouragement, Barb! Great to see how Jesus is growing you and using you in his kingdom work!!! There is victory in Jesus!