Death to Anger

Anger.

Not the anger you have at someone stealing your lunch, but something far deeper.

The anger at a person or group of people who have hurt you deeply, and have caused a lasting effect on your life.

Maybe they beat you, stole from you, made you lose your health, job, or even your home. Even worse, they could have harmed those you love.

This anger is different, intensely burning - yet left alone goes cold, dark, and can settle into your soul and inner being. Such an anger is dangerous, and can deeply affect your relationships and most importantly your walk with God.

This inset anger leads can lead to many things - sin being frontmost, as it seeks to ruin you.

So then what?

Literally Jesus Christ is the answer.

Christians forgive others the same way that Christ forgave us. No matter how intensely angry we may feel towards another, God was infinitely moreso towards us. He is a perfect and Holy God, and our sin and decisions not to follow Him caused this. We literally deserved His anger!

Yet He forgave us, He paid the ultimate price for our sin through His son, Jesus Christ. It was through Christ that all things were made, He was there in the beginning(1)  - and it is through Christ that we see the ultimate act of love on earth - Christ literally taking our sin and mending our relationship with God at the cost of His earthly life (2).

It is by this amazing blessing we have an example. Anger is temporary, Jesus is forever. To follow Him is to forgive others out of love.

Anger corrodes the container it is held in. Forgive - if only to preserve your own soul. Jesus came that we may have life, and have it abundantly(3). He taught us to love, and the essence of this love is to not hold wrongs against others.

"'...Vengence is mine, I will repay' says the LORD,"
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- Romans 12:19

So trust Him!.

Cited verses:

1.) John 1:1, ESV

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

2.) John 3:16, ESV

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

3.) John 10:10, ESV

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."