HOW TO DEAL WITH ANGER

Anger is without a doubt one of man's greatest problems, for it affects and influences practically all of his verbal expressions, actions, and deeds, and every reaction in his relationship to the world around him. But the picture is not a hopeless one. There is a way of escape from this dilemma. God has shown us how to rid ourselves of anger.

ACKNOWLEDGE THE CONDITION

God is faithful to show us our condition. Very often He uses dreams, for when we sleep our conscious lid is taken off and the feelings of our subconscious mind rise to the surface of the conscious. Angry feelings personify themselves in our dreams,

so it is easy (if we are honest) to identify their real meaning. True, we dream because of physical reasons, such as eating too much before going to bed, so we cannot say that all dreams are from God. Nevertheless, God does use dreams to speak to us and show us what lies hidden in the depths of our frozen anger.

Sometimes our dreams are bad. For example, we may see ourselves beating someone, pounding on them, or even killing them. Dreams of this nature are expressions of the frozen anger and wrath we have toward someone. The person in our dream may not be the one with whom we are angry, but the hostility manifested in the dream indicated the presence of suppressed anger down in our frozen cesspool.

As we already have stated, the person or thing that we vent our anger upon may not necessarily be the object of our anger. when we fail to turn our anger loose against the party who displeased us, we shove it down into the frozen state to be released later in a situation that may be totally unrelated to the original provocation If anger Energy is not changed, it will come out against someone, sometime, some where. Or it may finally be released against the person we were mad at in the beginning The anger can keep building up in the subconscious state until a final offence ignites the rage which releases the anger that has been pent up for weeks, months, and sometimes years.

There is no cure for, or lasting relief from anger, until we acknowledge our condition. The medical world can give only a measure of temporary relief. The very act of having to acknowledge this problem and being forced to face the reality of its existence relieves some of the patient's inward pressures. This solution is just a partial one, however, for even the most skilled physician is unable to change the inward animosity of his patient, he does not possess the power to convert anger from its destructive force into something beneficial and wholesome. Only God has the cure for anger.

SEEK GOD'S HELP IN PRAYER

If we have a disturbing dream, or if we have awakened with a miserable, blue

and depressed feeling for no apparent reason, it could indicate hidden anger. The way to the cure is to take the dream to the Lord in prayer. Only God can show us the true source of our anger, for in as much of it lies hidden within the frozen cesspool of our subconscious minds.

Each of us has his own spiritual garden to clean out. We cannot depend on others to do it for us because they have their own gardens to weed. This is no small job, but as we keep working, it gets more and more exciting. It becomes fun to do you own seeking and cleaning of our heart and will. We would not think of planting a flower or vegetable garden and expect our friends to take care of it for us. So why should we expect others to weed our spiritual garden? This is a job we must do Ourselves. It is up to us to get into our prayer closet and seek God, saying. "Lord, please show me who I am angry with. Put Your finger on the source of my problem. Let me see why I am feeling so depressed Where did it all star'?" When some happening in our daily lives triggers the frozen anger down in the subconscious, so that it is released into the conscious realm, we find ourselves suddenly feeling as though the bottom has dropped out of life- life is not worth living any more. Most of the time we are unaware of where these negative and destructive feelings are coming from. That is why we must seek the Lord's help. He alone is to reveal those hidden source and causes. Only He can guide us into the process of cleansing of our corrupt and antagonistic heart and will.

PRAY FOR UNDERSTANDING

We must learn to reason with God. We all are well experienced when it comes to reasoning and counselling ourselves with our darkened eyes which can produce only a confused and muddled picture at best. Sometimes we do not want to find the reason because we are enjoying the negative feelings of our anger. Grovelling about And self pity. depression and negativism is a form of perverted pleasure, so sometimes we prefer to stay in a depressive state for a while longer. This type of behaviour can be linked to an emotional drunken spree. We have to get sobered up before we are ready to be reasonable with God.

It was God who said, "Come now, and let us REASON TOGETHER. said the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18). Though our anger be as scarlet, it shall be white as snow. Though it be red like crimson, it shall be like wool. As we already have seen, anger is a tremendous energy which, when it became corrupted with sin, took on a destructive form. It is possible for this energy to be cleansed and converted back into the  constructive and righteous energy which God created it to be in the beginning This conversion takes place through the process of confession and repentance When we confess our anger to the Lord, His Blood cleanses us from that sin, and the portion of His Blood which formed the sea of God's forgetfulness carries the sin back behind God's back where it is converted into snow and into wool. Snow speaks of God's cold humility nature: wool speaks of His hot exaltation nature. The two unlike elements of snow and wool, then, represent the two opposite principles found in God Himself and in all that He does. Confessed scarlet and crimson sin can be returned to us as humility energy and exaltation energy. That is what God was talking about when He admonished us to reason with Him. God does not give confessed, misused and abused energy back to us in the corrupt form which He received from us. He cleanses it and returns it to us in the form of cleansed, holy,  and righteous energy. Behind God's back there is a tremendous conversion which works to restore confessed corrupted energy to its original form. When this converted energy Is returned to us, we can use it for good in our own lives and for good in the lives of others. Fleshy anger, with its negative, destructive force, works unhappiness, Sorrow and grief. But converted, positive energy can be used for the glory of God and the happiness of all concerned.

As we reason with God about our sins, we realize how much precious time we have wasted on anger sprees, some of which have dragged on for years. We could have quickly brought anger under control and sent it back behind the back of God if we had just confessed it when the first bubbles of displeasure started coming up Instead, we gave way to Our  anger, and it continued to grow into indignation, rage, fury and, finally, into its worst stage of wrath. Had we done business with God in the first stage of irritation, we would have had all that clean, powerful energy to pour out in praise and worship to God, to serve and work for God, and to spread happiness to others.

As we pray for understanding, we will realize what our anger is doing to our relationship with God, and we will understand how seriously we are sabotaging ourselves. Anger works havoc in our physical bodies. When anger's destructive energy is released within the body, it provokes strong physical reactions which, over a period of time, can result in serious chronic diseases which can even destroy life. Anger also works against us  mentally and emotionally. The repercussions of hidden anger go out like giant waves to touch every area of our lives. It is time for us to reason with God. It is time that we become reasonable in this matter of anger. Common sense, alone, tells us to forsake this most destructive force.

DEAL WITH THE ANGER

As Christians we deal with our sinful anger by pleading the Blood of Jesus Christ against it. It is much easier to handle anger in seed form than when it has grown into a mature tree. Deal with agitation in the very beginning. If confess and acknowledge the displeasure of a thing. pleading the efficacious Blood of Jesus Christ with its cle ansing power against it, we have dealt with anger in the right way. We can spare ourselves much grief and needless waste of energy if we will promptly acknowledge the condition, seek God's help immediately, be reasonable with God about our anger, and deal with it the moment it comes up.

This process works beautifully in the seed stage of anger:  On the other hand, when we are dealing with frozen anger in the case of the cesspools stage, it requires more patience in seeking and waiting on God for the revelation Of the true source of our anger. Because we are dealing with anger in its invisible form, this requires the revelation of God to be able to discern it. Once we have seen the source of our problems, we should immediately start the process of repentance and confession before the LORD Jesus Christ. Claiming the shed Blood of Jesus with its cleansing power to convert the scarlet and crimson angry energy into pure righteous snow and wool energy.