There have been some SHAMELESS attempts to increase blog stats on some of my friend’s blogs lately (Tam, Mandy, Alece – i’m looking in your general directions!) 🙂
I admit to being tempted to follow those, by now, well-worn paths but i had a better idea (takes a Man!) 😉
Something i believe is quite important for us humans to understand (about ourselves in order to ‘overcome’) is our own ego and how it sneaks up on us from inside.
It leads us into commiting ‘sin’. The Bible defines Seven ‘Deadly’ Sins (sins that will cost us eternal life!)
I have decided to deal with each one – which are also aspects of our own human personalities (egos) – in a series of posts and hope to get some good feedback in the form of comments on how you see each in your life – if you do? ( if you don’t – take another look – deep down hidden inside of you where you try not to look too hard 😉 )
I am beginning alphabetically – with ANGER…
How do you see it? When and where does it reveal itself in your life most? and How do you stop it (once you have regained some form of ‘control’??) can you ever eliminate it totally from you – or will you take it to your grave?
I’m going first… my anger most often arises from frustration . SO many things frustrate me – maybe i’m getting ‘old’??? – Nahhh – the world just gets stupider every single day! (my blog friends are usually exceptions! 😀 )
Frustration arises from my own, perhaps unrealistic, ‘expectations’ of what SHOULD be the ‘right’ way of doing things.
My anger most often makes me SPEAK VERY LOUDLY (Shout out at people/things – mostly those who can’t hear me or answer back 😉 ) and turn a nice shade of purple. Hitting inanimate objects frequently accompanies this – i used to play Golf a lot – it was a great release from, but also a source of, anger/frustration – ” i can play BETTER than this rubbish!”)
As with all emotion – it controls my actions far faster than i can react to it – sensibly, Christianly.
Becoming more accepting of others and slower to react until i have time to truly understand the situation can help me become less angry – recognising the various circumstances that might be likely to lead to me becoming angry and either avoiding those or remembering to wait for more info/more acceptance will also help.
Ok – enough of ‘me’ over to you (y’ aww) 🙂
BLob's Blog 
It takes alot to make me angry, God has truly changed my heart in that area. But I would have to guess that the emotion that can send me the wrong way quick is feeling like I don’t measure up to others. GOd is still teaching me to not be a people pleaser, and to be a God pleaser. Love you Love! haven’t seen you lately..hope I didn’t do anything that offended you. 😉
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I assure you you have (would never) do anything to offend me Darla – i am finding it difficult to visit everyone’s blog i would like to because of time ‘constraints’ is all.
I WILL do better soon 😉 (and i still ‘owe’ you a prize/email!)
I hear you with a reduction of Anger in your life now… but you are not telling me you NEVER get angry – maybe just a little mad (annoyed) even??
Look ‘deep’ and come clean now! 😉
The other emotions (well, sins) will get their own post in the coming weeks so let’s all focus just on where anger shows in our lives for this post – Yes? 🙂
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D – ever get any road rage driving that big bus?? 😉
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shameless is right.
i tend to internalize my anger… until i reach explosion point. usually my “outbursts” are more targeted at myself than others (equally unhealthy). i’m trying to be more aware of those moments and talk to God in the midst of them…
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i’m dealing with some SERIOUS anger right now (in the stupidest grieving process of my life)… but being counseled to deal with it / face it, and it’ll pass………
i actually asked my advisor if i should head to forgiveness asap & she said that i had to sit in the anger ’til it passed and it would turn into sadness.
i trust this woman. but am VERY leery of the “permission” to stay angry.
i guess its ok as long as i don’t SIN in my anger, right?
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I am loving you for leaving that comment. I completely left that out of the post, not thinking. Sometimes when God places something on my heart, my fingers just start flying and my head doesn’t stop to intercede. Thank you for adding that great info.
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ocasionally I get angry, but I am pretty quick to pray about it..I know I will get in trouble in the anger department! 😉 Never road rage on the bus…too much of a precious cargo..have been verbally attacked by a road rage goofball and that did make me angry! Is that what you want to know. I do understand not being able to get around to all the blogs! 😯 just checking on my favorite Aussie! Love you Love!
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What makes me angry?
I don’t have a problem with anger although I have been there a few times.
The thing that will set me off quickest is people talking about me behind my back. Gossip, rumors (rumours).
Of course we all know that love being the thing God commanded us to do above all else would prevent all things that can lead us to each of these deadly sins. But who really can say they “truly love”?
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I’ve had a terrible time with anger throughout my life. Anything can set it off – but especially if I don’t have the proper chemicals.
But I’m not sure anger is a sin. “Be angry and yet do not sin.” As long as we learn to control our feelings and not let our feelings control us, I think we’re OK.
I try to see it before I spew all over myself or my loved ones. I used to growl a lot – didn’t recognize it until my youngest son started doing it too. Chemicals and prayer work wonders – but one without the other and no one wants to be around me too long.
How’s that for honest confession? 😉
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Thank you all – most especially for your honesty!
To do as Jesus did (in human form) it is most essential that we learn to be HONEST with ourselves.
Please do not think thar anger must be of a certain kind or a certain frequency to be a ‘problem’.
If we get angry because our favourite breakfast cereal has sold out at the supermarket once in a year or so (or any similar ‘silly’ thing) it shows something about ourselves that we can work on to eliminate from us (if this kind of thing is the BIGGEST ‘personal’ (ego) problem in your life then you are probably getting VERY close to truly following Jesus 🙂 )
It is quite likely that Anger may not need your most immediate attention and your efforts may be produce better results by working on one of the other deadly sins that may be affecting you more strongly (don’t worry – never worry! – we’ll get around to the others in due course! 🙂
Oh – and Michelle? As i am certain you are aware confession is good for the soul – and of course it is not necessary for us to confess in public – merely to Him in private!
I am glad you shared though 🙂
And as for Anger not being a deadly sin. I have used a common translation of Wrath – anger. The ‘Deadly’ sin (according to the Catholic Church) is Wrath so i take your point – now my turn to confess – like Blessed1 i often write before fully researching all the facts in a hurry to get my thought out and accordingly can omit stuff! 😯
I think i need to write another post explaining my reasoning and more directly referring to the biblical concept of sin before the next in this series gets published 🙂
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Darla – i am impressed that you have sufficent self-control and concern for your precious ‘cargo’ to not let rage, anger or wrath overcome you His strength in you must be greater than in me! 😉
Once you have dropped off your cargo and parked the bus do you ever kick the cat when ‘no-one’ is looking?? 😉 ( Big Wink! )
Tam – your spelling is improving! 😉
Your last paragraph is exactly what i am about. Recognising that, try as hard as we might – and as good as we truly are, none of us is yet able to follow Him for every single second of life here on Earth.
Following Him Truly is a worthy goal – but not an easy one to achieve totally and Truly – 100% of our waking and sleeping moments.
Our ‘lower’ self takes us over against our ‘conscious’ intent to follow Him – sometimes only for seconds – but those seconds are all it takes for damage to be done to our selves – or worse to an innocent party.
Regaining control and again holding Jesus in our heart can be achieved quickly in some cases – i’m about trying to help others to reduce and remove those moments from our life that ‘slip past’ our self-control – when He is not ‘In Charge’ of us, but the Adversary is. When we do not do His Will but our lower will of the ego.
For all other times i am quite happy leaving you in His hands. 🙂
Alece – it is good that you can see what leads to any ‘explosion’. Providing you have a good ‘safety-valve’ that releases you regularly you may be able to ensure that you never reach the critical point of holding things in?
Better for you would be to look deeper at what it is inside that causes each little ‘pressurisation and see if you can find a way in Him to stop it occuring.
As Tam said – Love (His sort not human sort) will hold the key to that 🙂
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Love, was that a polite way of saying, TMI. 😉
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Mandy! Welcome y’aww (i simply cannot stop myself doing that lately – wonder why?? 🙂 )
I Hear You!
Is your counsellor a true follower of Christ? or is she a professional, but secular, practitioner?
It is important you have Faith in her full understanding of your situation in order for her to be able to properly help you (and lead your mind to PEACE).
I suspect she knows that to suppress our Anger is to leave it festering within us waiting for the moment to boil over when it may do us even more damage (and our soul bears it’s ‘weight’ all the time before it does boil over!)
We should never be led into commiting sin – but if we are conscious ourself sinning (which i believe means to NOT DO the Will of Our Father in Heaven) then i feel we should do what we can to turn that around and seek His Help in doing so.
This may mean taking time to ‘work through’ some perhaps long held emotions or ‘beliefs’ about what life should or should not be like. (what we feel is ‘fair’)
Our anger and our grief are things that cannot be instantly removed from us (except through Divine Intervention! 😉 ) and may take some time to fully come to terms and be at Peace with inside ourselves.
Make sure you have time for introspection – but do not try to rush things as you may ‘miss’ something important for you – be patient.
“3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. ” Rom 5:3-5
Also ensure you have the comfort of close friends and a good support group.
And never lose that wonderful Southern Humour 🙂
Seeking His help through understanding fully the situation causing us discomfort is never a bad thing to do! 😉
Seeking and finding forgiveness of ourselves and others is the same!
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Michelle – most definitely NOT!
I was attempting to show my appreciation of your honesty and forthrightness and generosity in leaving your comment while at the same time showing my understanding that others do not HAVE to do as you kindly did to reveal ourselves to each other , as long as we always reveal ourselves (and our faults/sins) to Him – that is far more important to our Salvation than the ‘appreciation’ of our fellow man or woman 🙂
Are we clear? 🙂
(I was glad of your comment, not the least beacuse i hope it gives encouragement to others to contribute for the benefit of all who read this!) 🙂
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I rarely get angry. But when I do it is almost always because I am feeling sorry for myself – I feel that I am being mistreated or taken advantage of or life has just been unfair.
Two things help – I pray – not for God to take my anger away – I used to do that but the issue usually arose again. Instead sometimes I yell at God and tell him how others (or even He) will piss me off. He let’s me have my say and then I end up feeling foolish. But relieved.
Or what’s better, if I am not too self absorbed, is to take notice of people who have REAL troubles. Like the 25 year old man I work with at night who has Hotchkins. Who the hell do I think I am anyway? What the hell am I getting pissed off about?
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We’re clear…having been through much abuse and counseling, as a consequence, I’ve learned to just ‘fess up. I have many weaknesses and am not able to make it alone. I need God and I need God’s people to get through. Life is too hard to live in isolation.
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Okay I have only read the post, not any comments, b/c I am sure other comments will remind me of OTHER things that make me mad. hahaha!:lol:
Usually, it is frustration. That is almost always the case. That and also when I feel offended in some way.
If I want to control my anger in that moment (b/c lets face it, we don’t always want to not be angry when something calls for being angry) I usually have to remove myself from the situation and BREATH DEEP.
When I can’t remove myself I can be found muttering under my breath anything that will keep me from blowing my top. 😉 B/c usually, when I a get angry or frustrate, it’s when the boys are around, b/c well…they’re always around. 😉
I don’t think we can totally eliminate anger from ourselves b/c there are times when it calls for being angry. The trick is to not let it control us.
It’s funny the timing of this and the timing of our sermon on Sunday, b/c Saturday night I was thinking “I am going to choose joy over everything. I am in a position in my life where I can get very upset right now and angry at circumstances, but if I just choose joy over all of it, to be happy in the moment that God has given me, and to be thankful for these stressful times (when it comes to the kids) b/c one day I will miss this.”
I am going to try very hard to have this attitude from now on b/c I feel like my life depends on it. I am going to a place where it will be easy for me to be angry. The first time I moved away from my family I spent a LOT of time being angry. This time I can’t do that, nor do I want to.
Okay Love, I just realized I hijacked your page!!! Gonna run now!
Love love!
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Like you and others here have already commented, often little ‘irritations’ or ‘frustrations’ can eventually make me ‘lose it’, but those times are thankfully becoming less frequent.
I think this computer is actually helping me learn patience because it ‘tests’ me so often! It’s running slower and slower, but we can’t afford to do anything about it now, so I get to learn more patience in controling my anger there =}.
An area that I do struggle with anger at times is with my dogs (particularly the younger one). We didn’t really ‘train’ her as we should have, so she follows her senses wherever they may lead, ignoring us for as long as possible. When she is finally attentive though, she’s so ‘apologetic’, I feel all the more guilty for having been angry with her ={.
I’ve thought about my outbursts of anger in those situations, and think they mainly originate out of embarrassment or fear. Of course, she could be killed while obliviously crossing the street, or get us into trouble with neighbors for trespassing on their property. So, maybe the anger comes more from pride and/or disappointment with myself for not training her properly or allowing her to be in harms’ way in the first place.
I do think human anger often springs from those other vices, and to fight it, the root causes must be understood, and submitted to the Spirit’s control.
I’m glad though that others here have already mentioned anger doesn’t have to become ‘sin’.
God is described as angry many times in the Bible.
My concordance showed “Lord + anger” over 200 times in the Old Testament. I didn’t check every one of them out, but do know that Ex. 34:6 characterizes His very nature as “SLOW to anger”.
That same idea is expressed in 1 Cor. 13:5 where divine love “is not EASILY angered”. So, I think that means anger will not necessarily be eliminated from our lives, but only present for the right reasons.
Otherwise, Jesus would have sinned when He threw the moneychangers out of the temple (Jn. 2:13-17). I can’t imagine He wasn’t angry in that case. His anger there was against injustice and inconsistency, and I doubt there are any of us who haven’t rightly been angered by the same.
I think at times God’s love (1 Cor. 13) requires anger rather than acceptance of wrongdoing that will harm not only those who may be victimized by it, but even more, eventually, the ones committing the wrong.
Granted, any resulting ‘confrontation’ MUST have the LOVE presiding OVER the anger to not ‘sin’ in it. I do agree with the statement in Mandy’s comment that ‘anger will pass to turn to sadness’, and I think the kind that’s ‘of God’ will do that almost immediately (before the sun sets- Eph. 4:26 =).
D-
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Chris – that was Beautiful! – Am so glad you made the comment about asking for forgiveness and the anger coming back. This is exactly the sort of stuff i was hoping others may be able to realise.
Our ego survives to pull us back down from Him – even if He forgives us for our last or past actions. We need to seek out and eliminate those things within us that keep those ‘moments’ coming again and again that prevent us from constantly following His Will and getting sidelined by our own (unwanted) will.
Sorry all – time escapes me again today – will answer more comments tomorrow – Chat amongst yourselves if you like ? 🙂
Some truly ‘good’ stuff being discovered here 🙂
Actually it is mostly ‘bad’, i know, but it is important that we get it out and not hide it away. This gives us and Him a chance to remove it from our mind completely!
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Love: thank you …. and thank you for the link. i appreciate your distinction between anger & wrath. i’m not wanting to kill anyone, just yell. and it doesn’t matter who i yell at.
so… i don’t think i’m “wrathful” or wanting to harm….. just really really really frustrated & hurt. so, thank you for your words and your encouragement to work through it.
blessings to you today.
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Bran, That was very thoughtful and deep – and insightful – and encouraging – you do me proud on this one Young Lady!I agree with everything you said 🙂
I still believe though that the REAL key to anger – and to just about every other ego problem we have is to always do His Will and to not be frustrated because we do things in His Time and way – not our own idea of how ‘things should be’.
We live our lives from the perspective of – ‘I would do things THIS way’ instead of – ‘the best way is the one that contains the LARGEST POSSIBLE view and understanding of ALL concerned, not merely my own view’.
That is the Way God sees things and why we need to follow His Will as our own. 🙂
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More to come in the next post but ‘briefly’… 🙂
Anger in the Bible, i think, takes often the form of Righteous Indignation (Jesus and the money-changers eg.)
Jesus had perfect wisdom and understanding of His Father’s Will – and acted in accordance with it.
Sadly, i don’t believe any of us do so when we most often are angry.
We may feel a similar kind of ‘righteous’ indignation that can lead us to do various acts – which can and do affect others without much consideration most times on our part – but i feel this is a sin – it is us following our selfish will – not the Will of our Father who wants us to LOVE our fellow-man – not get angry with them – or more preferably with the things they do (or don’t do!) that are contrary to the way WE want them – not the way He wants them.
We should never use Scriptural examples of what God did pre-Jesus as justification for our own sinful, selfish thought and resulting acts.
Anger that arises within us all from time to time should be re-directed into USEful activity.
We should be slow to anger as Laz correctly quoted from 1 Cor – the sad truth is anger often rushes upon us before we can consciously decide to slow it’s path and direct it into positive, rather than destructive, actions.
Few if any of us today understand perfectly when it is right to act with indignation and take the action Jesus did in the Temple.
We should not assume that it is ‘ok’ to be angry – even with ourselves at our own stupidity or frustrations – both of which have their origins in our selfish ego – not the Unconditional Love of the Father for His Children.
His Will – not my will be Done.
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Thanks for your recent email comment to mine here. I appreciate the confirmation and especially when you wrote:
“It is a long slow process that frees us from the unwanted within us so that more of Him is able to reside within (and come out from our own soul which is being held captive by our egos).”
I hope you don’t mind my copying it here also, since I think you’ve stated it in others ways already. It impressed me there as especially well stated though.
The other comment you made that also really ‘rang true’ to me was:
“We live our lives from the perspective of – ‘I would do things THIS way’ instead of – ‘the best way is the one that contains the LARGEST POSSIBLE view and understanding of ALL concerned, not merely my own view’.”
I suspect that will probably relate to all vices that are yet to be considered.
A statement in a devotional I read today confirmed that same thought taken from the context of Heb. 12:1-2 where we’re called to ‘throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entagles us’ to ‘run the race set us by fixing our eyes on Jesus’. The statement related to that text was:
“Do you want to be like Christ? Begin thinking less about yourself. Work toward becoming unselfish. For one full day, let go of anything that serves your own interest to the exclusion of others. On that same day, fix your attention on Jesus by surrendering in complete selflessness.”
And last (I’m almost done =), another friend’s blog had these words highlighted from a video posted there:
“I’m choosing to loose me
and all else that must be lost at any cost
This cross is not ever too heavy
I’m doing more than just endeavoring
I’m straight leveling every lie
I’m cleverly severing every tie
but those that bind me to His side
That’s why every day I die hard
… and live – free”
– Oraia (www.myspace.com/oraiapublishing)
The site for the whole video is:
I don’t know you’ll agree with the whole ‘attitude’ expressed there since the author is young, and somewhat of a ‘maverick’ (in a very good way =). Maturity will hopefully ‘balance’ that out without losing the passion. That’s what the intent of 1 Cor. 13:11 is I believe, and a worthy goal for us all no matter how old or young.
Thanks again for your confirming insights.
D-
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Laz – i have started to make a ‘collection’ of your Scriptural Quotes!
Many times i say things to others here and am met with refutation and confusion, occasionally bordering upon scorn because what i say does not seem to be in their Scripture.
As i said – you always seem to be able to quote just the verses that describe what i say in a way that others do not immediately recognise – because of their own beliefs.
The Qotation list will enable me to speak to some in a way that they better understand – or can at least have reason to believe! 🙂
You are a very valuable friend (i have found a number here in blogland) for which i will be eternally grateful – see blogroll and add yourself!
Others are being added slowly! 🙂
As for Oraia – as you say – she is young and will mature – if she keeps that passion and ‘aim’ then she may accomplish a great deal in her life – i hope so. (i have frequently said i cannot be ‘boxed in’ myself) I like her – even if hip hop and rap is not ‘my’ style 🙂
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