when it comes to anger, we are stupid...

remember that old doritos commercial that said, “eat all you want. we’ll make more.” your body is like that with anger. yell all you want. your body will make more anger. become angry all you want. your body will churn out more anger. there’s an anger assembly line inside of you. you can just churn it out day after day. you find yourself on this downhill slide, caught up in this pattern of anger.

proverbs 14.29 (msg) says, slowness to anger makes for deep understanding. a quick tempered person stockpiles stupidity. a quick temper makes you act in more and more foolish ways every day. it’s stupid.

there is an animated computer game called worm. these silly little worms throw things at other worms on the other side. what you’re trying to do is hit them before they hit you. one thing about the game though is often when you throw something at the other worm, it goes straight up in the air and comes back down and hits you in the head. then the little worm says, “stupid!”

when it comes to anger, we are stupid! why is anger stupid? because it hurts me. it shortens my life. why is it stupid? it hurts the person that i love the most. it damages our relationship.

proverbs 25.28 (tev) says, if you cannot control your anger, you’re as helpless as a city without walls, open to attack. defenseless. when you’re angry, all the defenses come down. you’ll say anything to win the argument, even if you’ve told yourself, “i would never say that!” no matter how hurtful it might be, you’ll say it. sometimes you do anything, the craziest things, things you never imagined yourself doing. that’s the danger. all the defenses come down.

does this mean i’m supposed to pretend i’m not angry? that i just stuff it? no. holding it back doesn’t mean you stuff it. ephesians 4.26-27 (niv) gives us the practical steps to break the pattern of anger. in your anger, do not sin. do not let the sun go down while you’re still angry. do not give the devil a foothold. notice, do not sin.

that means sometimes you need to wait until the temperature cools to have a conversation. if you talk right away when you’re feeling that red-hot gauge of anger, you’re going to say the wrong things. back off a little bit. let things cool down. do not sin. speak when you’re angry, and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret. cool down for a minute.

notice also, do not let the sun go down. do not let the sun go down on your anger. don’t let it go past one day. that means you can’t wait so long that the cooling gauge goes to freezing. that happens very quickly. all of a sudden we can’t talk about it. there’s nothing to say about it. your anger becomes frozen rage, frozen bitterness because it’s cooled so far. the bible says talk about it that day. give yourself time to cool off, talk about it that day and you won’t get in this extended pattern of anger. you were not made by GOD to live in an extended state of anger.

just a thought from the front porch…