Are You Still Angry?

Are you still angry? Then the Lord said to Cain, “why are you angry? Why is your face down cast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Gen4: 6, 7(NIV) Anger is a trait common to man. The only difference is how it is expressed, whereas, some people express their anger in a violent rage, others just withdraws into their shell, while some vent or transfer theirs on something or someone else. For example, some people out of anger eat out of proportion, others may just make some purchases that they do not need which may cause a strain on their finances. On the other hand, some just talk either loudly or in whispers. The thing is we do get angry some times. Anger may be positive or negative depending on its root cause. For example, God gets angry when His children do things contrary to His expectations. The anger is not because He does not love us, but because He does ravishingly. A parent at times gets angry with their siblings for wrong doings. Positive anger is geared towards repairing strained relationships due to wrong on the side of a partner. God- man, parent-children, friend-friend, husband-wife, are some of the examples of relationships that may experience strains at times. It is also important to note that a positive anger may become negative if and when the reaction rather than mend the strain in relationship, further adds dents to it. Then it means that in the final analysis, it is not the cause of anger only that determines its rightness or wrongness, the corresponding reaction to the cause if not handled properly, may tend towards a negative anger. The Bible enjoins that we should not sin in spite of our anger. Now, the Lord did not say we should not be angry; rather, we should handle the anger and be self-controlled. In other words, never allow your anger to take control of you, in the midst of it, allows the Holy Spirit to direct your actions. Negative anger on the other hand, is founded on wrong premise, wrong thoughts, wrong feelings, which ultimately breeds wrong actions. “And David went out withersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely: Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people….” (1Sam18: 5). Here is a story of an obedient servant, who would do whatever his master asks of him. Before this time, David had been anointed, he had become another man, and he had killed Goliath thereby becoming a national hero. In spite of these fits by him, he remained humble enough to play harp at the king’s palace to drive off evil spirit from him. The verse we have read made it clear that David never acted beyond the delegated authority he received from Saul. David later went to war with other warriors, and on their return after victory; they were welcomed in songs and jubilations. Notice, we were not told that David was celebrated after he killed Goliath, but after the battle, as the people danced they said; “ Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten of thousands. Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. “ They have credited David with ten of thousands, he thought “ but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom? And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.”Vs 7-9 NIV. Now we were not told that David became proud by the songs of the praise singers, rather, the next day, (the day after his great exploits was acknowledged by the populace), when evil spirit came upon Saul again, David was humble enough to play the harp for Saul. But because of his negative anger, while David was playing the

harp, Saul had a spear in his hand “…he hurled (at David) saying to himself,’ I’ll pin David to the wall:’ But David eluded him twice”. Vs 11 Notice, negative anger because it is found on wrong premise, will ultimately lead to multiple of sins. It is impossible for God through the Holy Spirit to control a man negatively angry. His mind is already filled with evil schemes of revenge, jealousy, hatred, insecurity and the likes. Pause! Ask yourself about that thing you are angry about, what is the cause? Are you already angry and sinning? Is the Holy Spirit still having His ways in your decision making in spite of your anger? Every anger founded on wrong premise, or anger founded on right premise but followed with wrong reactions has their root cause on something other than the anger itself. In essence, the anger is predicated in something else, the anger is only the reaction to it. In the book of 1Sam 18, we were able to see why Saul was angry. “ Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had left Saul. When Saul saw how successful he (David) was, he was afraid of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in campaigns. When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.” (Vs. 12, 15, 16, 28, and 29). All uncontrollable anger is always founded on fear. The reason for the fear may be obvious or unfounded. Ultimately, it gets out of hands as the fear start magnifying. In Saul’s case, his various fears led to a negative anger that ultimately ended in various murder attempts. The anger made him forget that David was the one playing harp for him to send the evil spirit off him, he forgot all about David’s loyalty, he sent him to war for a negative reason, he demanded a bride price that could lead to David’s death, he even gave out his daughter in marriage for a wrong reason to the point of being sad that his daughter loved David. That is how it is with us when we give room for anger to take absolute control of us; even our good gestures are with wrong motives, that we start wishing ourselves evil, desiring others downfall rather than promotion. That when we are offended, our actions are always out of proportion because what the fellow did was not really the reason for our actions but our fears Back to our base scripture, Cain became angry because his offering was not accepted. The Lords reply was that if Cain had done the right thing, his offering would have been accepted. In other words, if I have a right stand with God, nothing anybody will do directly or indirectly will cause me to fear. I would not be jealous; I will not feel threatened because I know the same God is good to all, what one has does not stop me from getting mine and my not receiving from God what I believe for now does not mean I will not get it later. Since there is no fear to receiving my blessing, I won’t transfer my anger birthed by fear on the others. For the word says, “ perfect love cast out fears” (1 John 4: 18). That if I am consumed in the love of God, I can never be afraid, if I am not afraid, then I can never be angry to the point of sinning. I can never get out of the control of the Holy Spirit irrespective of my anger. The scripture went further by saying every wrong doing (and by implication, wrong thinking), that breeds fear brings sin to our doorstep that desires to consume us but we can control it. The word of God clearly stated that fear is the foundation of every evil works. The entrant of fear removes faith and fear breed all of his children consequent upon which sin becomes the end result. In other to quench this desire of sin, one need only repent, right the wrong (where possible) to get into right stand with God in other to think right thought and bring ourselves back into the love of God which ultimately casts fear out. Whenever you get angry and rather for it to subside, you are getting worked up to the point that the anger is getting out of control, pause ask yourself “what am I

afraid of?”