You don’t want to go around angry all the time. Yet some people do. If you want freedom from your rage, you have to first understand why you get angry in the first place.
Some people get angry because they are defending themselves. They feel personally threatened. They worry about losing an object of their desire. Others lack self-control. They are impulsive. They react without thinking things through. Then there are people who are simply imitating the crowd. This is an angry age, and they are just following suit. Then there are those who use angry as a strategy. We see this often in domestic abuse situations. People use anger to get what they want. Lastly, there is righteous indignation, the only legitimate reason for anger. People see an injustice and they cannot abide the situation. We have to be careful with this one. Most anger is not righteous indignation. As it says in the Letter of James, the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
What can we do to avoid being trapped in our rage?
We identify the reason we are angry. If our problem is self-control, we develop some discipline. We count to ten. We write letters but never send them. If we are influenced by the angry tenor of our times, we surround ourselves with calm people. If we recognize that we use anger as a strategy, we decide that we don’t want to be that kind of person. If our anger actually is righteous indignation, we want to focus it a single cause where we can be effective. There is no shortage of important issues that need attention, but we don’t want to go around yelling about everything all the time.
One final thought to help us with chronic rage. No one ever had more reason to be angry than Jesus. He bore our sins upon his shoulders and died unjustly at a young age. Yet he didn’t feel he needed to defend himself. In fact, no one got angry less often than Jesus. We can’t be exactly like Jesus, not in this life, but we can all be at least a little more like him. You don’t want to wake up mad. You don’t want to go around in a rage all the time. Think about Jesus.