StudyGrowKnow

Reacting to the Weather of Our Lives

January 20, 2026 at 11:15 AM Leave a comment

One of the subjects I’m studying as I go through my biblical counseling program for certification is surrounding the area of feelings and how they tend to drive us. Obviously, as human beings, God made us with the ability to have feelings. There is nothing wrong with many feelings. However, feelings can become the problem when they lead us instead of following our lead. This is probably no better understood than in the realm of human anger.

Is there a problem when we become angry? Not necessarily, but it is interesting that the Bible tells us to “be angry and sin not,” and to “not let the sun go down on your anger,” (Ephesians 4:26). Here are a few more portions of Scripture that highlight our need to watch our anger.

A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath (Proverbs 15:1)

Put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth (Colossians 3:8)

Don’t make friends with an angry person, and don’t be a companion of a hot-tempered one, or you will learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare (Proverbs 22:24-25)

Refrain from anger and give up your rage; do not be agitated—it can only bring harm (Psalm 37:8)

So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23-24)

A patient person shows great understanding, but a quick-tempered one promotes foolishness (Proverbs 14:29)

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love (Psalm 103:8)

My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20for man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires (James 1:19)

There are, of course, many more portions of Scripture that speak to the problem of anger, when we will not control ourselves by submitting to the Lord. Instead, we just vent our gut because of our anger. We often don’t stop to consider what we are saying and too often, we fail to even fully understand the situation or the other person involved in that situation. We simply get angry and vomit words at them. Sometimes we call this righteous indignation, but is our anger really that?

It is interesting when we consider Jesus. He had every reason to be angry and there were times He did become angered. He was angered at the sin He saw when the religious leaders refused to acknowledge the truth about Him. At other times, His heart was heavy with sorrow because of how sin had entrapped people and how they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus’ righteous anger caused Him to knot a corded rope and proceeded to use it against the money changers in the Temple who had reduced God’s house of worship to a storefront where “customers” (average Jewish worshippers), were routinely cheated and robbed with one excuse after another there.

The first time Jesus cleansed the Temple was just after His first miracle (John 2:11–12). Another cleansing occurred during Passion week (Matthew 21:17–23). Jesus had a heart for the purity of the worship and the money changers (with permission from religious leaders) had turned God’s house into a den of thieves.

At times, Jesus did become angered at certain people or situations, but did not allow His anger to control Him. He controlled it all without sin. He took the time to create a knotted cord and then simply went into the area and began overturning tables and chasing the money changers out. His intent was not to inflict harm on people, but to open their eyes to the sin they were participating in. Too often our anger leads us to sin.

Take another example in Moses. He walked with the LORD for years yet he became impassioned against the people of Israel at the rock because they were complaining about the lack of water (Numbers 20). It must have felt like deja vue to him because the first time he did this, he was allowed to strike the rock (Exodus 17). These two incidents pointed out the first and second comings of Jesus. The first time He came to this planet, He came as a servant. When He returns, He will return as King of Kings and LORD of Lords ready to judge. When Jesus came the first time, He allowed people to mistreat Him to the point of a death on the cross. When He returns the second time, no one will touch Him out of anger or malice. Moses, unfortunately, destroyed the image that God was attempting to project using those two situations as life lessons. This is why Moses, though forgiven, was taken home before his time. Moses’ anger destroyed what God wanted to project to the people and ultimately to us through His eventual written Word.

There are all sorts of anger that rile people up (and that includes Christians). According to what I’m learning in my biblical counseling program, there is unjustified anger, fear-based (or jealous) anger, proud anger, self-inflicted anger, bitter anger, wrath-kindling anger, punitive anger, noisy (clamor) anger, slanderous anger, and malicious anger.

All of the just listed forms of anger are sinful. They do not bring us closer to God nor do they glorify Him. When we justify ourselves in our anger we are actually catering to our Self, not to God. This type of thing cannot go unnoticed by God. He will eventually do something about it, trying to restore us to fellowship with Him through repentance. Again, this does not mean we can never be angry, but the Bible provides strict guidelines for our anger.

The reason most of us (Christians), become angered is due to the perceptions of our hearts. Even though saved, our hearts are still terribly duplicitous and who can truly know the heart’s intentions (Jeremiah 17:9)?

Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, did not become angered at Judas for doing what Satan prompted Judas to do. Jesus was also not angry at the soldiers who came to take Him into custody. In fact, when Peter chopped off the ear of Malchus in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:51, Mark 14:47, Luke 22:50–51), Jesus took Peter to task and healed Malchus’ ear! How many of us would have done that (if we had the ability)? Too often we allow our carnal natures to take over. Even when we couch things in religious terminology, we believe have the “right” to be angry over something.

Later in that same night, while Jesus stood before leaders who were busy condemning Him, Jesus responded to the High Priest and a nearby soldier thought Jesus was being disrespectful so he slapped Jesus (John 18:22). By the way, when a Roman soldier slapped a man, he was denigrating that man. Slapping the man with an open hand (verses punching him), was a form of insult. The soldier was saying that Jesus was not on his level or he would have punched him and the very nature of slapping was designed to make the recipient feel less than.

However, look at how Jesus responded to that slap. “Jesus replied, ‘If I said something wrong, testify as to what was wrong. But if I spoke correctly, why did you strike Me?‘” (verse 23). It doesn’t appear that Jesus was angry at the soldier. He was taken aback by His treatment though, yet kept His calm demeanor, which allowed Him to do the Father’s will to perfection.

I’ve often thought about that soldier and when he died. If he never became a believer can you imagine the absolute shock he experienced at the realization that he had slapped God the Son?? The same goes for those religious leaders who did everything they could to get rid of Jesus and eventually succeeded (because of the Father’s will).

Unrighteous anger occurs too often in believers and it happens because of our corrupted, idolatrous heart as noted. What we Christians fail to realize is that even after we become saved, our sin nature doesn’t go away. It hangs on mercilessly trying to regain our attention and slavish devotion. Though I am aware that some Christians believe we can attain to a level of sinless perfection in this life, we actually cannot.We will have our sin natures until we see Jesus and He removes it and gives us a glorified body as well.

Though saved, we maintain a level of corruption that will never be fully overcome in this life. Our sin nature refuses to let go and continues to use our fallen emotions to guide us. Too often, our emotions become our guides, which can create lots of heartache and sin. Our emotions should not guide our decisions, words or actions at all. They were originally created to follow the decisions we make, not lead us like we would lead a horse or cow.

The truth about anger and other feelings/emotions we experience? They are most often caused by our faulty heart’s desires, not necessarily by people or circumstances, though these can trigger our heart’s sinful response. James breaks this all down clearly. He starts off in James 4:1 with the following statements.

1 What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you? 2 You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.

Notice James tells his readers squarely that it’s the passions within that war against us that cause conflicts, quarrels, killing, coveting and the rest on the outside. We prefer to blame other people though don’t we? It’s easier. The problem is not me, it’s them! If they would only straighten up and do the right thing, then I wouldn’t have to get angry.

It is interesting though that in 1 John, we are told repeatedly that authentic believers are already conquerers (1 John 2:13-14; 5:4-5). But this also needs to be worked out in our lives on a daily basis using our will to choose to submit to God (Philippians 2:12). That reality is there, but must be embraced daily, moment-by-moment.

Tim Bryant, the executive director of Lowcountry Biblical Counseling Center likes to say that we are all too often affected by the “weather” (situations, circumstances), of our lives. So how do we get beyond all of this so that our anger (or other emotions), does not control how we react to life? Fortunately, the Bible has the answer if believers are willing to listen and obey. The problem is many to most of us aren’t willing to do what the Bible prescribes so that we will gain freedom from our emotions that seek to enslave us, their whipping boys/girls, to do what those emotions want us to do.

Daily, we should be approaching God with a greater desire for humility. Daily, we should approach life knowing that God is control and He only allows things to come our way that are beneficial for us – for our growth and His glory.

We can take what James describes and see the wisdom in it or we can be self-centered in life, as King Ahab was with respect to Naboth and his vineyard that Ahab desperately wanted. When Naboth wouldn’t sell it to the king, the king got very angry and pouted. His wife Jezebel noticed and after explaining the situation to her, she took it upon herself to find a way to literally murder Naboth and did so according to the Mosaic Law (though the men accusing Naboth were vile men, who were willing to lie for money).to

If we come to God daily with a sincere desire to be made more humble, God will honor that and He may use circumstances and people to make that happen.

Here’s insight that may help. Your love for God and other people will grow to the degree that you understand what you have been saved from. The more we gain understanding and enlightenment on just what God has saved us from, the greater our love and our devotion to God will become. This is what grows our love for Him, resulting in a true desire to be more obedient to Him in all things. This then, in turn, causes us to be greater evangelists for God, presenting the Gospel to people we come in contact with throughout the day. Why? Because of our increasing love for God and them.

So, we should seek to become more humble before God. We should also exercise greater thoughts of God and desire for God. This should become our practice. Next, we should exercise humble thoughts before God. In other words, we should self-abase. We need to come to the realization of who God is, what He has done, is doing and will do for us, and this should affect how we think of ourselves.

Next, all of this should result in us becoming much more tender hearted toward other people; believers as well as the lost. If the entire law is fulfilled in loving God with all our hearts, minds and soul and loving others as we tend to love ourselves, then we should become more tender hearted in our walk before God.

Joseph in Genesis is a perfect example. We know how he was spitefully treated by his brothers, sold to to the Ishmaelites, carried to Egypt and sold to Potiphar. Potiphar’s wife wanted to lie with Joseph and would not give up in spite of how many times Joseph refused her advances. Finally, tables were turned and Joseph was accused of trying to rape her. Potiphar took him and had him put in Pharoah’s dungeon. There he languished (though God was with him), for several years until he was freed.

Eventually, Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt to buy food because of a severe famine (God’s design). They didn’t recognize Joseph, who at that point, was second in command of all Egypt. They probably didn’t recognize him because many years had passed and Joseph was very likely dressed like men of Egypt, including face paint.

Eventually, after several trials against the brothers (to determine their worth), Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers. Of course, they are shocked. They think he’s going to throw them into prison or worse. But after all these years, Joseph says to them the following words.

19 But Joseph replied, “Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people. 21 Therefore do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” So Joseph reassured his brothers and spoke kindly to them. (Genesis 50:19-21)

The only way a believer can get to that point is to have been seriously humbled before God and to see others better than himself/herself. Joseph understood what many of us fail to see in life. The good and the bad comes to us because God has His purposes in it. The lessons had not been lost on Joseph and those lessons had done their work. Joseph makes a wonderful type of Jesus because of his unrequited love for God and his brothers. He held no grudge. He did not allow his anger to capture him and take over. He seemed to continually submit himself to God and God rewarded that attitude, humbling Joseph and even raising him to the second highest position of authority in Egypt.

Imagine what might have happened if Joseph had given into his anger or other emotion and not allowed himself to grow in his love and devotion to God?

We all have circumstances and situations that come to us in life. Some of those situations make us angry and we want to protect our self image. If we give into them, we can become hardened to God and combative to others. We need to forgive and by doing so, we chase anger away, replacing it with the pure love of God that is so attractive in those who surrender to it. This is our ongoing sanctification that will continue until the day we are with Jesus in the afterlife.

Entry filed under: christianity, Emotional virtue, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, salvation, sanctification. Tags: anger, conquerers, righteous indignation, unrighteous anger.