Anger vs. Happiness
Angeris a mental attitude sin that is often expressed overtly as wrath. Like all other mental attitude sins, anger produces its own misery. (Proverbs 19:19)
Anger is a destroyer of marriages, families, children and friends, not to mention self. (Ephesians 6:4) This is why the Word of God commands usto put away anger and not allow it to produce other sins in the life. (Ephesians 4:26; Colossians 3:8) The Bible says that anger can be controlled and to do so brings glory or honor to the person that learns how. (Proverbs 19:11)
Being slow to anger is a virtue reserved for those who learn how to control their emotions. (Proverbs 16:32; James 1:19-20) Learning how to control your emotions can come only from consistently being under the control of the Holy Spirit. Once again, you are controlled by God the Holy Spirit when you have named all know sins and are executing God’s plan for your life. (I John 1:6-10)
There are those within the body of Christ that have made emotion their god. We are told by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:17-19 that these people are destroying their lives and have actually become the enemies of the Cross of Christ. Why? Because as believers in Jesus Christ, our citizenship is in Heaven not this world. Therefore, we are to operate our Christian lives on the basis of being Royal Family of God, not “the family of emotion.” Emotion is a wonderful thing, given to us by God. However, emotion without the proper devotion (following God’s instructions) is destructive, according to our passage. Emotion is how we are able to appreciate all the things that we have received from God. However, God does not want us to live our lives based on how we feel (emotion) at any given moment. He wants us to live our lives based on how He feelsabout everything that we think or do, which we find only in His Word.
We have a perfect illustration in the Old Testament of the destruction that anger can produce. It’s the story of King Saul of Israel and David. We find this story in the book of I Samuel. Let me summarize. Israel, the Jewish nation had existed without an earthly king from the day it was formed by Abraham, under the direction of God. Typical of the Israelites, they were not satisfied with what God had provided as a way of life. As they looked around at other nations, they realized that they did not have an earthly king. Therefore, through the prophet Samuel, they talked God into allowing them to have a king. God chose Saul as their king. His arrogance in ignoring the mandates of God finally resulted in God choosing a new king. This new king was David.
When Saul became aware that David had been chosen to succeed him as king, he became angry and did everything in his power to kill David, though David remained loyal to Saul throughout the entire ordeal. Saul’s anger of course was a sin against God, but it also led to dissention between him and his son Jonathan. This dissention was because of the relationship that existed between David and Jonathan (they were like brothers). Saul’s anger also brought misery upon the entire nation to the point that Saul became involved in witchcraft. The story ends with Saul’s sons being killed by the Philistines and Saul killing himself. All this due to arrogance and anger!
So how are we going to be able to control anger in our lives? The answer is in learning to share the happiness of God. Happy people rarely allow themselves to get angry. When they do, they recognize it as a mental attitude sin, confess it and move on.
Sharing God’s happiness comes as a result of obeying God’s Word. (John 13:17) Happiness comes when the believer has developed virtue and truth in the soul, which translates into good decision-making (wisdom). (Proverbs 3:13,18) Consistent good decisions create an environment for happiness. The believer with virtue in his soul realizes that neither circumstances, material wealth nor other people can make him happy. (John 15:11; I John 1:4) This all means that we must think our way to happiness, it doesn’t just happen.
Happiness or joy is produced in the life of the believer under the filling (control) of the Holy Spirit according to Galatians 5:22-23. We are literally commanded to “rejoice always” in Philippians 4:4. It is therefore God’s desire for all of us to be full of His happiness. (John 17:13) This inner happiness is a part of the character of Jesus Christ being formed in us. This happiness is to be exhibited by us toward circumstances and toward others. (John 15:10-12)
Being happy as a Christian is learning to accept what life brings our way as part of a growth process. A part of this is learning to be grateful regardless of our circumstances. Gratitude can go a long way to producing happiness because it takes away those negative thoughts of complaining and grumbling. Paul the Apostle learned this concept we are told in Philippians 4:11-13. In this passage, he states that he has learned to be content in the midst of any circumstance. This means that happiness or contentment did not come naturally to Paul, it had to be learned. Paul spent a lot of time in prison, being persecuted and on the run. Humanly speaking, it would be very difficult to be happy under those circumstances. Sometimes during Paul’s “walk” with the Lord he suffered adversity and sometimes prosperity. But in both circumstances Paul learned that he could do all things through Christ who was strengthening him. So Paul had to learn how to deal with adversity and with prosperity (both can be a distraction to the execution of God’s plan for us).
Often adversity is not the greatest test for the believer. During adversity most of us, believer and unbeliever, turn to God for help. However, during times of prosperity it is very easy to forget the source of that prosperity. This, of course, eventually brings misery.
Paul also writes to the believers in Colosse and prays that they would learn to be happy. Paul’s prayer for these believers is recorded in Colossians 1:9-11. In verse 9, Paul prays that they would be filled with “gnosis” doctrine (Bible knowledge) and “epignosis” doctrine (belief and application of Bible knowledge). In verse 10, the prayer is that these factors will cause a believer to please the Lord by being fruitful (divine production) and by learning more about Him (intake of the Word of God). In verse 11, Paul prays for the power of Christ to strengthen the believer by giving him patience or persistence in the execution of the Christian Way of Life with happiness (joyfulness). The more time we spend in the study and application of God’s Word the more time we will spend being happy. In order to share the happiness of God, the believer must possess the peace of God. The peace of God is only available to those that already have peace withGod through faith in Jesus Christ.
The peace of God is experiential peace and every believer has the potential to have this peace. But like everything else in the Christian Way of Life it is a choice… maybe you will and maybe you won’t experience this peace. The good news is that God in His grace has provided the procedure for obtaining this peace. This procedure is found in Isaiah 26:3-4. The procedure is clear: think Bible doctrine and apply Bible doctrine.
This peace is the same peace that Jesus told His disciples He was going to give them. (John 14:27) The peace of God comes by following this divine procedure, which is: don’t worry but put everything in the hands of God and let Him handle it. (Philippians 4:5-8) We do this with our Divine Viewpoint Thinking, which allows the peace of God to rule our hearts (thinking). (Colossians 3:15-16) The heart in Scripture is not the physical pumping organ. (Proverbs 23:7; Romans 10:10) The Greek word for heart is “kardia.” The heart is the storage compartment for all knowledge. (Psalms 119:1) The heart is where norms and standards are stored. (Psalms 19:14) The heart is also where vocabulary is developed, so a person can think properly. (I Corinthians 2:9-14)
The peace of God can only rule your heart (thinking) when you have peace with God and when you are executing God’s plan for your life through consistent study and application of His Word. This study and application develops the proper norms and standards and vocabulary for the believer, which the Holy Spirit uses to empower us to fulfill God’s plan for us.
Do you want to stop being angry when things don’t go your way or when someone annoys you? Try God’s solution to this problem and learn to share His happiness!