Ephesians 4:26 says- “In your anger do not sin”, Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.

Yes, this picture above is so me with arms crossed and all. This is a lesson that I have not mastered yet. So, our gracious God allows me to take the test over and over again until I have learned the lesson. I truly know what the Israelites felt when they were going around the same mountain for 40 years. Been there, done that and yes I have the t-shirt. There are  still  times I am traveling the mountain. 

I woke up this morning and I was angry. I was angry that when you are trying to look out for someones best interest and they will not listen to you. They are bound and determined to do it their way. Does this sound like a Mother talking????

I have also been hurt and have gotten angry recently over the hurtful actions of others. Have I acted like Ephesians tells us   in the Bible and be angry but not sin. No, I must confess I have not. I have let the sun go down on my anger. So, right here and now let me say, Lord forgive me. Teach me to do better. I am capturing the thoughts.  So, I have read scriptures this morning about dealing with anger.  Watched a series on anger by Joyce Meyers this morning. I have read article this morning about dealing with anger and I have posted one that hit home below at the end.  This is a  lesson for me. A lesson for us all. For we all deal with anger.

The Bible actually teaches that we can be angry but we are also told not to sin in doing so.
DO NOT let the “sun go down on your anger.” In other words, get angry but get over it and, “do not give the devil a foothold” (Eph 4:27).

YES,  Some things ought to make us angry in this world but to remain angry is sin. This seems like a contradiction , Be angry but do not  stay angry for that is sin. If you read these two verses in the context of the entire chapter of Ephesians 4, you can see why Paul told the church members to be angry. Some were stealing, others had unwholesome language, there was brawling, rage, and slander (Eph 4:28thru 34).

I think of Mammy in Gone With The Wind, her words were…. It aint fittin’ . It just aint fittin’ . It is not fitting for members of  THE church( it is not a building folks, we are the church) and Paul had every reason to be angry over such behavior because it shames the Cross of Christ. It hurts the witness of the church. This was just the opposite of what Paul taught the Christians to be like (Eph 4:20). Psalms and Proverbs and James have many scriptures about this subject. . Paul actually quoted from Psalms 4:4 “be angry, and do not sin.”

Where there is NO peace there is NO power. IF you say you are not angry about something you are one of the blessed few. We have a lot of angry, hurt Christians. Jesus had power over the the storm because he did not let the storm get in him. This is from Joyce Meyers this morning. I LOVE this….. NO PEACE…. NO POWER ~

Anger is one letter away from DANGER. James 1:19-20-My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,  because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Anger is usually  not the right way to solve your problems. It never makes things any better. Yes, there is righteous anger but this is not usually why we get mad. We get mad because honestly, we did not get our way or what we wanted.  We should be slow to take offense. SLOW to take offense. S—-L—–O—–W—– ….. to take offense. Whenever we allow anger to get the best of us, we become less effective at doing whatever we should be doing for the Lord.  Many professional athletes know this all too well. They know that if they allow their opponent to get under their skin and cause them to become angry they will lose concentration, and they are headed for defeat. They know and are trained  how to keep their eyes on the goal.

Paul warns us to leave to God all those things that we can not make right because God will judge all unrighteousness someday.

Don’t let the sun go down on your anger for God will avenge and if we trust God’s perfect justice, ultimately no one will ever get away with anything.

When we allow anger to take the driver’s seat, rational thinking takes a back seat. I have Italian in my DNA. There is always a joke with Italians that we have tempers. I cannot speak for all Italians but I do know this is true for many of us. It is something that the Lord has allowed me to graciously take the test over and over again.

I am sure there are thousands of prisoners who regret the fact that they acted out of so much anger that their thinking became compromised, causing them to commit criminal acts. This is  why when we become angry, we should PAUSE and THINK and ASK ourselves: What does the Word of God say about how we should deal with the matter at hand? YES, in the midst of the battle, it is hard. But, God’s word did not say we could do some things. He said we can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us.

The Bible never tells us this walk will be easy. In fact it tells us it will be hard. God, has given us a guideline and steps to help us along the way. We must condition ourselves to always be driven by the Word of God and never by raw emotions. This discipline does not come overnight, but if we diligently work at it, it will come. This is the sure-fire way by which we can be angry and not sin.

Yes,  I have work to do . Transparent again.  I have humbly asked for forgiveness of my wrong thinking and I am so thankful that MY God’s mercies are new every morning. Thank you Holy Spirit that you spoke to me early this morning. Thank you for your counsel. Lord, thank you for your grace ~

Is it a Sin to Get Angry? Written by David B. Smith, Redlands, CA.

There are times when it is acceptable for a Christian to experience what we euphemistically call “righteous indignation.” But what is it which makes our anger righteous?

Even Jesus was angry on rare occasions. In a flash of holy emotion he cleared the rough and greedy merchants out of the Jerusalem temple (Mark 11). Once when the religious rulers set a trap for him, to see if he would heal an injured man on the Sabbath day, the Bible says: [Jesus] looked around at them IN ANGER and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

In both of these anecdotes, we see that the anger of Jesus wasn’t self-directed; he wasn’t concerned for some slight done to himself. He defended the holiness of his Father’s temple, and he was also indignant that a fellow human being who was suffering was being used as a pawn for selfish political gain. Jesus was angry when children were slighted or abused; he was angry with the disciples’ lack of faith because of their insatiable pride and ambition.

What about us? We’re not Jesus! But our own anger always needs to be directed toward protesting evil, toward protecting the frail among us, and resisting tyranny and abuse. We should be angry whenever God’s kingdom is attacked or undercut by deliberate greed or manipulation.

Two additional points. Even when our anger is justified, it needs to be temporary and quickly surrendered! The apostle Paul is a saint who seems to have had a temper — and here’s his advice to fellow Christians in Ephesus: In your anger do not sin. So there is a kind of anger which is not sin. But his next words are telling: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry — now notice this — and do not give the devil a foothold (4:26). When we hold grudges or nurse our anger, we give Satan a clear avenue to our souls. Nothing will destroy our faith in God more quickly than an insistence on taking personal charge of our own “getting even” crusades.

And that’s the second point. If we have a mighty Savior who has overcome the world, we can relax a bit. If someone in your life is truly bent on mischief, Jesus will take care of it in the end. In Luke 17, Jesus tells his hot-tempered disciples to forgive an irritating enemy seven times in a single day for a repeated offense. They immediately respond: “Lord, increase our faith!” What’s the connection between faith and our emotions? Simply this: trusting in God’s omnipotence enables his children to let go of their anger.