Triggered: Is anger productive or destructive?
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why would God allow things like this to happen? Why didn’t God stop it from happening? If God really loves me, why is He allowing me to go through such pain? If you find yourself dealing with some of these questions, then I hope to be able to provide you with some steps to help you work through these feelings. Dealing with anger against God is a process; but unless you begin taking deliberate steps toward healing, you will continue to wallow in your anger and grief. There are many stories in the Old Testament about people who were angry with God. We have discussed some of those recently in your community groups. Today, we’re going to be considering a few of those stories to see how they navigated this minefield of being angry with God. We’re also going to look at the writings and teachings from the New Testament (Peter, Paul, James and Jesus) to gather pertinent teaching about the work of God in our lives.
In today’s message, we will read once again from Ephesians 4 where Paul tells us to get angry, but get angry without sinning. Being created in God’s image, there are injustices in this world that should cause us to get angry. Anger is not wrong—only anger that is out of control is wrong. This morning, we will look at a few of Paul’s letters and a few proverbs to help us discover four keys for making anger productive, not destructive.
In your group studies this past week, you discussed some of the triggers that cause you to get angry. If your group was like ours, the list of potential triggers is a long one! But rather than addressing things that are triggers this morning, I want us to focus in on some of the root issues behind those triggers. There is a reason that people talk about getting to the “root of the problem” or the “root issue.”
Anger is an emotion that can be used for great harm or great good! In itself, anger is neither positive or negative—neither productive or destructive. It all depends on how somebody uses it. In this study, we will examine the source of anger and what anger is designed to stimulate to bring about a better end. We’ll also take some time to think about the dangerous side of anger and why it can be so destructive.