So I’m a Christian so I don’t get angry. Correct? WRONG. I wonder if you’re like me and suffer from anger!
The average Brit will have 4 arguments a month mainly with their other halves who are often the outlet for the anger! The word anger appears in Bible 234 times. I believe God knew that we would have problems with anger. Anger in and of itself is not bad; God created us as emotional human beings.
The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Psalm 145:8
Here is a picture of my family which as you can see speaks about God’s blessings. This is really the redemption of God. I grew up in a non-christian home where anger took chief residence. My family was angry and then we followed being angry. There were belts, there were slaps and so anger didn’t want to leave. This is why Indians eat curries to continue with our spiciness! I hope you enjoy the movies!
So I found Jesus right does that mean that my anger issues have left?
NOT REALLY. I justify my anger for various reasons; premenstrual tension, childhood, etc. I believe Jesus needs to put all the women into the spa for that week of course when everything is heightened…
Every single day I failed as I went from shaming myself to justifying myself. I applaud all of our women out there as they struggle to juggle our huge work-life/kids balance.
Then, one day..
I remember it like it was yesterday. It was dinner time and my son was unwell, so I was finding it all quite stressful. I was trying to rush my daughter’s supper so we could sail through the bedtime routine and get to bed early. I was obviously feeling anxious and that’s when it happened. My four-year-old daughter randomly threw a needle that had been attached to a poppy that had been placed by her side on the dining table. Chloe!” I screamed, my temper spinning wildly out of control. And, in a fit of rage, I threw her down from her seat and demanded that she find the needle. I was still shouting at her while she was down on the floor and continuing my torrent of abuse.
She burst into tears. I managed to calm myself, but it was too late.
As I knelt down later that night, in prayer to speak and hear God’s voice, I heard myself justify myself saying it’s hormonal and yes it’s a habit but, Father, I said, you are bigger. I have a problem with my anger and I don’t know how to be free of it. I then heard the Spirit of God whisper to me and he said this. Because you’re no longer justifying this I’ll take it out of your life.
You see what we justify we buy by saying I have earned the right to be this way because of what was done to me.
Rae Bowdler
So am I now healed you ask?
I am healed and I have forgiven my past hurts and my family but I have a habit and patterns of habit are incredibly strong. I love how the psalmist deals with anger in Psalm 79. He does nothing to conceal his anger or censor his prayer to make it more palatable. He simply pours out what is in his heart. Psalm 79 assures us of God’s presence at all times. By watching how the psalmist deals with his anger, we gain insight into how to deal with our own.
If we don’t admit our anger, we internalize it in destructive ways. Internalized anger can become a depression or physical sickness. We need to express our anger to God in prayer. We are used to filtering our prayers through a grid of theological correctness. Psalm 79 is an “unsanitized” prayer; it is a cry from the heart that might not be right. But God can handle our anger because he knows what we’re thinking and feeling anyway.
True Story
A friend of mine had prayed for a man who had cancer. In the middle of the week, they got a telephone call from his wife. She said, “You prayed for my husband. He had cancer.”She said, “He died.” My friend felt terrible. She continued, “Don’t feel bad. When he came into that church that Sunday, he was angry. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence.
After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. The last three days have been the best days of our lives. We’ve sung. We laughed. We’ve read the Bible together. We prayed. Oh, they’ve been beautiful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing. And then she said something incredibly profound. She said, “He wasn’t cured, but healed.”
So now each day I’ve started to pray – ‘I bind condemnation in the name of Jesus and I pray – God put a watch over my mouth let me be slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to wrath. I used to be quick to wrath because I was fiery in my blood so I had to stop allowing that to be my normal. I’d say Lord show me what these words look like. When we talk about renewing our mind people think it’s just memorizing and memorizing is great but I’m not that smart and so I read a scripture and then I meditate on it so I would say if I’m going to be slow to speak, what is that going to look like? Shall I count to 10 and shall I stop thinking of my response while my husband’s talking?
One of the best ways to do that is whenever my husband said something I actually set it back to him that way I was paying attention. I have learned to forgive people that have never asked for it I don’t believe there’s anything more supernatural then forgiving people who do not deserve it it is how we are the most christlike when we say father forgive them they didn’t know what they were doing.
So am I over my anger issues?
I would say sadly not, I am working on it. I know that I am made in God’s image but I am still not perfect. I have to renew my vows in Him each day. The same words ‘Lord help me to be slow in wrath, put a seal over my lips when I am about to say something that is not of you.’ Jesus didn’t expect us to be finished articles but He does want to be involved in reshaping us to become more like Him.
The Rae Cast 