There is an amplitude of advancement that we may never experience if a dimension of anger is not unleashed within us. Channelled in a constructive direction, anger can be an incredible asset to pivot new terrains of growth and increase. Things won’t change until there is dissatisfaction with the existing status quo that you have tolerated long enough. However, your anger must not be allowed to hijack your journey by locking reason in the trunk!
While you don’t want anger driving your decisions and treatment of people, it is not to be discarded as evil. There is such a thing as healthy anger, in fact when people lose their will to live, it’s clear they have lost the ability to be provoked. Foremost, anger sounds an alarm that you care about something or someone, like a smoke alarm signalling the presence of a fire that could destroy your home, our anger calls our attention to an issue that we cannot ignore if we want to survive. Our Nation is where it is today because we haven’t sustained a kind of anger that will get the attention of the system and make it sit up.
Queen Esther knew that her people will be alienated by a ferocious and determined enemy, didn’t sit still, all calm and pretty, a kind of anger rose up within her and she went to the King when it was forbidden to do so. You can’t overcome what you will not confront and we seldom confront what hasn’t in some way angered us or given us some level of angst! What are you going to confront today that is threatening God’s purposes for your life? It could be a habit-laziness, procrastination, lustful proclivities, gluttony, or a character trait, an employer- exploiting your skillset without any commensurate value in your pay package. Whatever it is, if you are not angry and start confronting with the wisdom and energy of the Holy Ghost, things will remain as they are and your mantra will ultimately be “Whatever will be will be” meaning you just accept anything and everything as they come. Oh No
You came fully loaded from the manufacturer with anger under the hood so that you could use it and not so that it can use you. Like all Vehicles, you do have to watch where it takes you. If you have the kind of anger that makes you hurt people, damage your own property or give up your position in life then your vehicle is out of control, like some warning system on the car dashboard, anger alerts you to some area that requires immediate attention. Anger isn’t a gift you should shun; you just have to be careful how you unwrap it. What you do with your anger will determine how its combustive energy will be channelled and effectively utilised. A little righteous indignation is a real blessing and can help you find peace and restoration. If Jesus got angry and used it to set the temple in order as recorded in Mark 11:15–19 then you and I must understand that there are some things within and around us that we will not correct if we aren’t angry about them. What is going on in your temple, your life, your relationship, your home that exists solely because you have become docile in an area that you need to confront?
Anger properly allocated can do a lot to ease the torment of a boundary that has been disrespected, it does help to erase the mask of stoic pretention and show where we stand on issues dear to our core values. This emotion God placed within us, like other emotions, must be properly managed and focused, not discarded and suppressed. Like the flame in the Lantern of the 90s I saw and used when growing up, you want your anger to provide illumination, not the soot that would blacken the lamp because the wick was turned up too high! Your blazing rage will block your vision and cause you to perceive things incorrectly. Professional boxers avoid anger when they fight, rage diminishes judgment and consequently good opportunities are missed because of the soot attached to anger gone wild!
Just as we find many usable energy sources in this world that are productive only when they are harnessed and handled with care, anger operates in a similar fashion.00:47
Once we understand the purpose and power of anger, then we must consider the potential dangers of anger. A nuclear power plant can produce billions of kilowatts of energy, but a nuclear bomb can also devastate half a continent, leaving radioactive waste that poisons every living thing around it for generations. Interestingly, anger can shroud itself in many costumes. You may be thinking, “Well, I am not angry” and perhaps you aren’t but understand that anger doesn’t always ignite a head-pounding, eye-twitching rage that makes you throw object across the room with the velocity of a missile, No, there is that slow-burning, deeply silent, brooding anger that is far less obvious but just as lethal if not more so because of its stealth. Or what of that self-effacing, humble suit of false modesty that often hides a heart that is deeply resentful and full of the loathing of self and others, there is also that subtle anger that dresses in polite camouflage apparel, acting as if it has no inner conflict but casually revealing itself through humour, sarcasm, or jokes at other’s expense.
Anger begins to lose its constructive power when it jumps the tracks of reason. As we’ve seen, this volatile emotion should serve as a fuse lighter to energise you to remove obstacles to your growth and greatness. However, when anger stays too long it comes out in destructive emotional patterns including bitterness. Judas was angry with himself, he became bitter and hung himself.
God didn’t tell us not to be angry rather he told us to be angry and sin not (Eph 4:26). Feeling angry is not a sin. No, the sin blooms when anger is allowed to take root and overstay its welcome and usefulness. We are exhorted to not get angry quickly for “anger rests in the bosom of fools” (Eccl 7:9)
If your anger doesn’t take you to a place of peace, then it is a cancer cell waiting to embed itself in your soul and multiply destruction. We were not designed to harbour anger for long periods of time and internalizing it puts us in a constant state of stress. Like the blaring of an emergency siren, it is helpful in distress but worrisome once the threat is past. Anger that overstays its welcome quickly becomes detrimental to the system it was trying to alert.
Consider how much energy you expend by sustaining an adversarial, war-mode approach on your job, in your marriage, relationship or with those you encounter. You have to conserve your energy for its highest and best use. Jacob directed his ‘anger’ to its best use, wrestled with an angel all night until He blessed him, He became the Israel of God!
When anger diverts your energy away from where it should be going, you fail to discover your highest and best use of your gifts.
Let your ‘Holy Indignation’ produce the works and fruits of righteousness, altering the status quo, setting in order the temple making it indeed serve its original purpose -a house of prayer and not a den of thieves. Let your anger birth purpose, silencing the works of darkness, as you thrive in all the Father has earmarked for you this week and beyond.
His Prevailing Blessings.
Michael D.Olaniyi
@mdolaniyi