Introduction
A quick-tempered man acts foolishly.
(Pro 14:174)
A Christian brother walked up to me one day and said, “Pastor, I get angry too much, and I don’t know what to do”.
I took time to counsel with him over this emotional problem, and told him to find time to study the books of First, Second and Third Epistle of John in the bible. In the course of counseling, I shared Proverbs 16:32 and 25:28 and suggested he should also study all the epistles of John; the reason being that, they help to build up faith and God’s love in us without which we will never be able to control or overcome anger.
Anger! Help me!
These scriptures and many more are shared in the light of this subject in this book titled, ANGER! Help me! in order to help many know how to win over anger.
‘Anger is very bad; anger is terrible; anger is not good!’ These have become slogans that we hear everywhere in our society today. Here, we are quick to label something bad all because we lack the required skill to help us utilize and manage the challenges that come with it. For example, electricity is very good because it holds a lot of economic, social and welfare values (just to mention a few); but if not properly managed, it can destroy life en-masse or cause developments to drag. Water is also very good, but we must know how to properly control it through a channeling system for maximum social and economic values, otherwise it becomes disastrous.
More so, marriage is good, (the bible says, marriage is honorable) but if we are under-equipped or ignorant of the “Why and the What” in it, casualties will become inevitable through frustrations and disappointment, and then we’ll hear people exclaim “This thing called marriage!” A Christian sister once expressed her fears for Christian marriage, having heard a lot of odd stories of marriage wrecks. But thanks to God that counseling has paid off, as she’s married and enjoying her marriage today.
Anger is not bad after all, contrary to what society has made us to believe either consciously or unconsciously. If the bible or should I say God says through His servant Paul, “Be angry, and do not sin……” (Ephesians 4:26), why then do we say Anger is bad? Anger can only be bad when we fail to keep it within the sanity of scripture. A little outburst can reflect a little bit of madness or eccentricity
This book is uniquely divided into four different segments comprising of seventeen chapters plus one-which is the CONCLUSION. Each of these segments or Parts concludes with a quick ‘Summary’ referenced to the chapters under it except for the Conclusion.
Part One comprises two chapters only. It is very definitive in nature since it is compulsory for me to use both chapters to lay the necessary foundation that’s required. Here, anger is explained as not just a natural response to hurts, but must be demonstrated within the limits of the Word of God.
Part Two is summarily a warning for us not to allow anger rob us from our treasures. This is the heart of this whole book as it conveys a first-hand personal encounter and revelations I had with God in this area of anger, in the year 1997, with my wife and I as the main actors. This eight-chapters-part is one which no reader would ever love to put aside until every bit of it is consumed. I stated in this Part Two, how I failed the test on how to handle this negative emotion. This has been a remedial for me, I must give a warning here, as this is where excitement turns into soberness. It remains one unforgettable experience I have had, in which God graciously warned me, “Anger can cut you off from your treasures.”
One of the interesting chapters under this section is chapters eight and nine, titled “Prophet! Watch That Anger (1) and (2)” respectively’. I personal call these “The Prophet’s Chapters”. Here in this chapter, all ministers and not necessarily those who are called into the prophet office are hereby warned not to allow their anger to dent their ministry. References are clearly made to prophets Jonah, Elisha, Moses and John the Baptist, in order to drive home some salient revelations that would help to keep us in check of our walk with God.
Part Three, which has five chapters summarizes the origin of anger and further consequences in addition to “The Prophet’s chapters”; while Part Four, comprising of two chapters, explains how we need to grow in love; how Jesus expects us to handle hurts in order to make us learn how to gain control over anger. These chapters under this Part can be summarized as “The Help-Chapter”.
I have decided to end “Anger! Help Me!” with a very rich “Conclusion,” which in itself is another help-chapter. It
Contains an incident to make us know that it’s not impossible forevery one of us to put anger under our control.
Anger! Help Me! Finally ends with beautiful and wonderful indexes mainly for reference purposes to enable the reader do a quick manual search to any area of special interest. These indexes are;
1. Index To Subjects– comprising mainly of numerous sub-topics within the entire chapters of this book and
2. Index To Incidents– which is beautifully spiced up with at least thirty incidents of anger, out of which about 50% honestly reflect my own stories.
May you truly learn how to manage your inborn gift of anger so that instead of binding your spouse, friends, neighbours who offend you, hurting them in revenge and putting them in the prison of unforgiveness, youll angrily hate/attack/bind the devil with perfect hatred, and truly discipline yourself to follow God’s Word in order to know how to love your neighbour as we all are commanded.
Ultimately, it is my sincere prayer that through the help of the Holy Spirit, you will discover the revelation that will help you prevent anger from cutting you away from your treasures, in Jesus name.
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