Are You Easily Angered?
Easily Angered – irritable. It’s a sign that love isn’t controlling my personality. I like to describe easily angered as someone who is “quick tempered”. If that’s you – its ok – we are learning how to work on some things in our lives.
The verb means “to cause a state of inward arousal, urge on, stimulate, especially provoke to wrath or irritate.
It’s passive – in sense to become irritated.
It can come from a number of things – impatience with others, an exalted view of yourself when someone stands in your way of getting something that you may want. Sometimes it comes from stress or fear and also physical pain.
Word Associations:
Enraged, inflamed, pushed too far, livid, infuriated, boiling, fuming and so many more and I am sure that we have all been in a situation when we may have felt this way before – some of us more than others – mostly because of our impatience.
Let’s all remember this scripture - Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ~ James 1:19-20
Anger is an emotion that mostly causes harm - Harm to yourself and others - Harm to your heart and soul. Anger will often produce a sensation or feeling of intense rage that people describe by the common phrases of “seeing red” or “making my blood boil.” We have all felt it at some point or another in our lives, towards someone, or something. Many times anger manifests itself in regrettable harsh words or actions towards the ones we love.
But how do you control your anger?
How do you keep from acting upon the strong feeling of rage?
For most of us, anger has caused us to be mistreated or has caused us to mistreat or threaten others in non-loving ways. Some of us seem to be able to “let things go” or “take a lot” before having an outburst, while others are described as having a “short fuse” when things can escalate rather quickly.
Controlling our anger can be a difficult thing. Screaming, shouting, and telling someone “what you really think of them,” can make us feel empowered over the situation while we’re in the midst of it, that is until the rage subsides and you realize how much you have hurt the other person.
We are warned in Proverbs to steer away from those who are easily angered because they will bring trouble and folly. Relationships can be scarred by the actions of an angry person.
The First step to controlling anger is to realize that the root of anger is pain. Our pain comes to us in a physical or emotional sense. Knowing and acknowledging this pain is key in beginning to heal from it. Second, is to lay that burden of pain at the Messiah’s feet, to realize the things you cannot change or control and ask God to help in those areas. Third, we can pray to God for healing and change. Having a changed heart full of grace and forgiveness is the best place to start overcoming the anger that wants to rise up from within.