Walking with the Wise #124: Anger Danger

“The vexation of a fool is known at once,

but the prudent ignores an insult.”
—Proverbs 12:16

Are you a hothead? A hothead is a person who gets angry unusually quickly without a justifiable reason, or whose anger is not in proportion to the action that precipitated it. A hothead’s anger is so intense that they lose focus and control, often hurting others with hurtful words and sometimes physical harm. Whenever we encounter someone who is known to be a hothead, we must be on guard, because we never will know when their anger will bring someone into danger.

While the threshold for anger differs from person to person, there is a point in time when our anger becomes sin (cf. Ephesians 4:26). Although anger is a natural emotion, we must learn how to control it. God is slow to anger (cf. Psalm 86:15) and if we are to be like God, or live a life pleasing to Him, we must learn to be slow to anger as well. Only a fool gets insulted and reacts instantaneously. It is the prudent, those who have been around a while, who have learned through time and experience that insults are meant to provoke. Therefore, they do well and ignore them.

A fruit of God’s Spirit is self-control (cf. Galatians 5:23), which means that we have the ability to control our anger. We have the ability to overlook an insult. As we mature in our faith, we learn the triggers for our anger, so that we might learn how to defend against it. Not that anger is wrong, but to know when it is proper to get angry, and to know how angry to get. We can then control our response.

What about you? Would those around you say that your anger is danger? Would they call you a hothead? Are you able to overlook an insult, or do you feel as if you must have some sort of vindication? Let God be the one to vindicate you, trust in Him, and give the pain you feel to Him; He is able to handle it. He will show you whether you are justified in your anger or not. If you are justified, then you will be at peace, but if not, then make the necessary changes by scaling back your anger or, if you have already given vent to your anger, apologize, ask for forgiveness, and (if possible) make restitution.

God wants us to be in control of our anger, making sure not to let our anger control us. May God be gracious to us when we fail, may we grow in our faith so much so that we become more like God who is “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”—Psalm 103:8. Amen.