Learning To Deal Appropriately With Anger

In summary of Ephesians 4:26-27 it says, "Don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge or cause you to sin by letting it control your actions.  Do what you can to not stay angry.  The enemy uses anger to get a foothold in your life."

Bottom Line:
Don’t let anger be a catalyst for making you sin (fueling revenge or letting it control your next steps.)  Do whatever you can to not stay angry.  The devil will use anger in gain a foothold into your life and steer you off-course.

What this means to me:
God’s Word cautions me on the danger that can occur from my anger if not dealt with appropriately.  I need to not let it fuel revenge or to let it control my actions.  Instead God tells me to quickly rid myself of anger.  If I stay angry and continue to dwell on what is making me angry, the enemy will use it to his goals and advantages.  So I need to realize that there are more helpful ways to deal with and release my anger.  First I need to not deny it, but rather be realistic with myself and admit it for what it is.  Anger is not always wrong, it is how I choose to react to it that makes it inappropriate or destructive.  I have found that expressing anger in-appropriately ends up producing the opposite of what I intended.  For instance, me blowing up at a person will never produce a positive lasting change, in fact is may produce more anger and alienation.  I need to also realize that anger is not usually the root problem, but often a result of either a hurt, a fear or a frustration in my life.  So instead of getting angry and blowing up or using it to fuel revenge, I’ll stop, admit it and with God’s help cool down.  I’ll look to identify if I feel I’ve been hurt, or if I’m afraid of something, or if I feel threatened, or think I’m losing something valuable or frustrated. Once I can correctly id this, then I’m much better off in dealing with the root cause.