Psychological & biblical concept of anger

Hegin Misao Hangmi *

Anger is one of the many emotions that we may experience in relation to the situations around us. It is a feeling of disapproval, dislike or opposition towards what is happening to us. The Chamber Dictionary defines it as “hot displeasure provoked by some action, incident or situation often involving hostility and a desire for retaliation.”

Because of the negative connotations of the word ‘anger,’ many people choose not to use this word when talking about their emotional feelings. They might say, “I feel annoyed” or “I feel frustrated” but inside they are really furious with anger, whether they are aware of it or not.

Psychological Perspective

Anger is complex emotional reaction. Explosive outbursts may have an initial calming effect on the individual, but in the long run they tend to reduce inhibition and may even facilitate the expression of aggressive behaviors.

Minimizing aversive stimulation, rewarding non aggressive behavior, and eliciting reactions that are incompatible with anger are the major strategies. Learning to constructively deal with anger is a peacemaking process that can require great patience, reflecting, listening, and knowledge of the major alternative strategies.

The capacity for anger is a basic human endowment. Anger is aroused by a sensory perception plus an interpretation of the perception. Anger, like all emotions not based on physical stimuli, is thus born by an individual’s thoughts; it is in part a product of interpretation and thus is always meaningful in some way.

Biblical perspective

Anger is manifested when we yield to extreme pressures from people or circumstances and say or do something that offends others. This happens whenever we allow our flesh to control us rather than the Holy Spirit. The Bible admonishes us to strip our anger! Turn off our wrath. Don’t fret and worry – it only leads to harm (Ps. 37:8). When we allow anger to control our lives we not only hurt others, but we hurt ourselves by destroying our witness before God and man.

Jesus set the supreme example as he hung dying on the cross at Calvary. By the world’s standards, he had every right to be angry toward those who placed him there, yet he asked the Father to forgive them.

If Jesus, at the point of death, was able to forgive, then there is no freedom for us to exhibit anger toward people or circumstances that seem unfair. We are reminded in God’s word how important forgiveness is in our lives. In Matthew 6: 14, 15 we are told that “Your heavenly Father will forgive you if you forgive those who sin against you; but if you refuse to forgive them, he will not forgive you.”

The following guidelines will assist someone in overcoming anger.

o Recognize unchecked anger as sin. “Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you” (Eph. 4: 32).
o Confess it as sin. “But if we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong” (1Jn. 1:9).
o Receive God’s grace and release. “And if we really know he is listening when we talk to him and make our requests, then we can be sure that he will answer us” (1 Jn. 5:15).

Self-control is an important fruit of the Spirit. When we learn to deal effectively with our own anger or assist others in finding healthy ways to express their own ambivalent and confusing feelings, perhaps we are helping each other to develop a growing capacity to accept God’s love for us and to experience that love in ways that will allow us to more truthful respond to each other with greater compassion and sensitivity.

Conclusion

Many people have developed a belief that all anger is somehow wrong or sinful. However, because our emotions are God given, and God experiences anger, this assumption that all anger is ungodly has to be wrong. To feel angry is not always wrong. In fact, if we don’t sometimes feel angry there is something wrong with us.

Ask God to help you to use your anger as a motivating force for change. If the anger is connected with some unhealed hurts in your life don’t ignore the hurts but seek to have them healed. If the anger is relating to injustices from others, then ask God to show you how He wants you to respond to the injustices. If the anger stems from relationships and the way others have treated you, let your anger motivate you to work at bringing about change and improving that relationship.

Think about what is wrong with the situation and then about how it could be changed.