Sinful and Stubborn Anger

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. – Ephesians 4:26-27

Yesterday, we discussed how to practice divine anger management according to Paul’s words in the book of Ephesians. Today, we’re going to continue that conversation by covering two more steps for how to manage our anger in a God-honoring way.

The second step we must take to practice managing our anger is to exclude sinful anger. In addition to Paul, James, the brother of Jesus, gives us some great advice about handling our anger. He reminds us to be slow to anger and to let go of our anger quickly. He gives us this counsel because he’s wise enough to know the consequences of anger if you don’t deal with it.

When you allow anger to fester and you hold on to it overnight, it is like leaving milk out of the refrigerator. It will sour and the milk of anger will curdle into a froth of bitterness. To put it another way, anger is like a benign tumor. If you take it out at night you will heal, but if you don’t, it will become a malignant tumor that will spread throughout your entire body, and it will ultimately spiritually and emotionally kill you.

That is when anger truly becomes not just sinful, but it becomes systemic. It will consume you, control you, and it will condemn you before the Lord. So even though you should express sinless anger as we discussed yesterday, you must exclude sinful anger.

The third and final step you should take if you want to manage your anger well is to expel stubborn anger. If you allow anger to fester, to build a nest in your heart, to take root in the soil of your soul, if you allow the stream of anger to become a raging river that overflows the banks of your mind, you will have fallen right into the hands of an invisible enemy that wants to absolutely control your life.

You see, when you allow the spark of anger to turn into a fire of bitterness, the devil will throw wood on that fire, and he will throw kerosene on that flame. He will make sure that fire keeps going 24/7 in your heart, your soul, and your mind. That is when sinless anger can metastasize into sinful anger that becomes stubborn anger. It becomes a problem that is tough to rid yourself of. So that’s the kind of anger you need to expel from your life so that it doesn’t get a hold of you.

Dear God, I don’t want to be controlled by my anger. Instead, I want to take control of my anger. But I know that I can only do that with the help of your Holy Spirit. So I’m asking, Lord please help me to manage my anger in a way that honors you. Help me to exclude any sinful anger I’m tempted to let loose and help me to expel any stubborn anger that is attempting to take hold of me. In Jesus’ name, amen.