The Giant of Anger Must Fall

The Giant of Anger Must Fall

by Louie Giglio, from Goliath Must Fall

A Word from Louie Giglio

Glorify God

Maybe you’re looking for an instant fix to your anger. You want to be changed overnight. But a real and lasting fix seldom arrives instantaneously. God morphs our life little by little, bit by bit Goliath taunted the Israelites every morning and night. The Devil prowls around continually and wants to devour us every day. The key to real, lasting change in our spiritual life is consistently filling ourselves up with faith. Giants seldom go away quickly. Our invitation is to continually remind ourselves that Jesus has already won. We continually need to link up to what he has done and who He is in us. Then we talk to ourselves like God talks to us. We tell ourselves biblical truths. When we do these things and align ourselves with the plans of God, then little by little things change. We replace anger with reading God’s Word. We replace the angry conversations in our minds with praying for the people we’re angry at. We begin to see others through Jesus’ eyes. We invite Christ to have the full rule and reign in our hearts.What follows are smooth stones of truth we can throw at the giant of anger. Jesus has already done the real work, and the giant has already fallen. But as we’ve discussed, ridding ourselves of giants is both a now-and-not-yet reality. The battle is over, yes. But the struggle continues. By God’s grace, He has won the victory for us, and He will win the victory for us, day by day by day.How is anger dealt with? How does this giant fall?

1. We remind ourselves we aren’t perfect to begin with.When we are angry at someone else, we must understand that Someone has already been angry at us. This can be a tricky thing to grasp, because the “Someone” is God, and we don’t like to think of God as angry. We misunderstand the wrath of God. When we think of God’s “wrath” we tend to overlay it with our understanding of human wrath. We picture someone strutting around a room, shaking his fist, throwing things at the wall. That’s how we picture wrath. But God’s wrath and human wrath aren’t the same thing.The Bible indicates that God does indeed hold out wrath toward people who don’t know Him and toward sin in the lives of believers. God is both loving and wrathful at the same time. He is wrathful because He is righteous. He is wrathful because He is holy. The things we tolerate, He doesn’t tolerate. The small sins we let creep into our lives, He does not let creep into His. His righteousness burns like a flame of glory. His wrath is the eternal flame of the holiness and the perfection of God. Really, God’s “wrath” just means that He exists. God walks into the equation of human life with its sin, and a holy God exists with the fire of righteousness and supremacy.God’s wrath means He can’t have anything to do with sin.J. I. Packer goes to the dictionary and writes,Wrath is an old English word defined in my dictionary as “deep, intense anger and indignation.” Anger is defined as “stirring of resentful displeasure and strong antagonism, by a sense of injury or insult”; indignation as “righteous anger aroused by injustice and baseness.” Such is wrath. And wrath, the Bible tells us, is an attribute of God.It’s important to grasp this, so we need to keep a new picture in mind. God’s wrath doesn’t mean He is out of control and pitching a fit. His wrath is much more a “positional” wrath than a “raging” wrath. It’s a character-driven refusal to have anything to do with that which is unholy. God, by nature of being a holy God, must turn away from sin. Yes, He’s a God of wrath, but He is not a God of outrage. Yes, there’s still a fierce anger on behalf of God that we need to contend with. It’s an intense anger, a severe anger, an anger where there is no gray area. Yet it’s always a positional anger of God’s righteous character refusing to be associated with sin.Paul describes it like this:But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. — Romans 2:5So let’s use this biblical definition of God’s wrath — a righteous wrath — and clothe ourselves in the truth of this extended definition. Although God’s wrath is not human wrath, it’s still a very serious wrath. Using the biblical definition of God’s wrath, we are reminded that long before anyone ever betrayed or belittled us, we betrayed and belittled God. And we were forgiven! So the person who has been forgiven much has much room to forgive others.That helps us put our anger into perspective.When I’m angry because I haven’t received respect or if I feel belittled or betrayed, then I can remind myself of the fire of God’s wrath.In my sin I have betrayed God. Yet God forgave me. So I can forgive others.Psalm 85 is so strong here. Notice the first few verses. The psalmist couldn’t even go very far without saying, “We’ve just got to stop right here.” That’s what Selah means.You, Lord, showed favor to Your land; You restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of Your people and covered all their sins. [Selah.]You set aside all your wrath and turned from Your fierce anger.Restore us again, God our Savior, and put away Your displeasure toward us.Will you be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger through all generations? Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? Show us Your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us Your salvation. — Psalm 85:1-7That’s the perspective we need to keep in mind. God has already forgiven much in our lives. That helps to keep us humble. That helps us stay off our high horse of moral superiority. That helps us forgive others.