Self-Control: 7 Steps To Controlling Your Anger. Many individuals think they need to fabricate their lives on qualities that last, yet they struggle to discuss and deal with their self-control.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of self-control is “restraint exercised over one’s impulses, emotions, or desires.” In other words, we can prevent ourselves from doing something we don’t want to do or from feeling something we don’t want to feel, especially when we’re tempted.
Self-Control: 7 Steps To Controlling Your Anger
We need to understand that, anything that’s uncontrolled eventually will destroy you. It could be eating, drinking, TV, Chocolate, or overspending—even good things that God created can destroy you if you let them go uncontrolled.
For example, God has a lot to say about one area of self-control that we all face in one way or another: controlling anger. Anger is not evil in itself. It is not a sin. Even God gets angry. The issue is how you express your anger. So learning how to control anger is an area in which we all can learn and develop.
Proverbs 25:28 (NLT) says: “A person without self-control is as defenseless as a city with broken-down walls.”
Self-Control: 7 Steps To Controlling Your Anger
Self-control is not just for those who blow up in anger, it’s also for those who clam up in anger.
Anger is an emotion that can range from mild frustration to intense rage. Anger is an essential part of life. When expressed appropriately, anger is both a healthy emotion and a physical reaction.
On the other hand, when expressed inappropriately, anger can interfere with our judgment and thought patterns. When this happens, we are likely to act irrationally or violently toward other people.
Anger is not evil in itself. God gets angry. Jesus got angry. When God made you He wired you up in such a way that you could get angry. It’s how you express your anger that is the key. And, if you don’t learn how to express it wisely, it will destroy you.
Self-Control: 7 Steps To Controlling Your Anger
Anger used in the correct way can actually become an asset. There are some things in life that the only proper response is to get angry. There are times when you see somebody taken advantage of when you see injustice or your children were hurt by someone.
If we don’t get angry in such situations it means we don’t care, we’re apathetic, and don’t really love anybody. God does not say to get rid of all anger. God says to learn to manage your anger.
Self-Control, 7 Steps to Controlling Your Anger. Below are 7 steps that can guide you towards your journey to controlling your Anger:
1. RESOLVE TO CONTROL IT
Stop saying you can’t control your anger and begin acknowledging you can. The Bible says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
So let’s stop making excuses and start accepting responsibility for our anger.
“A fool gives full vent to his anger but a wise man keeps himself under control” ~ Proverbs 29:11 LB
Notice the word “keeps”. This is an act of the will, it is something you choose to do. We have more control over our anger than we want to admit.
Have you ever been in a fight with someone and it gets loud, your yelling, and then the telephone rings? And you say, “Hello. May I help you?” How did that happen? You chose to control your anger.
Self-Control: 7 Steps To Controlling Your Anger
We have more control over our anger than we think we do.
Resolve simply means to decide in advance. You start controlling your anger before you hit the boiling point. Start by developing some strategies and procedures in advance of the crisis.
That’s what it means to resolve to control it. You decide in advance you’re going to control your anger with God’s help.
2. REALIZE THE COST
Proverbs 14:17 GN says: “People with hot tempers do foolish things.”
And again Proverbs 11:29 LB also says: “The fool who provokes his family to anger and resentment will finally have nothing worthwhile left.”
There are all kinds of costs involved with uncontrolled anger, you always lose when you lose your temper. You may lose your reputation, your job, the love of your husband or wife, or your children.
There’s a price tag to uncontrolled anger and it’s not worth it. As parents, we may be tempted to use anger to motivate our kids. Anger can get a kid to do what you what in the short term, but in the long term, you’re going to lose them.
The end result of anger is alienation. You alienate the very people that you love the most. Alienation leads to apathy. If you’re always angry people think you’re unpleasable so they don’t care what you think anymore.
Alienation and apathy are the high cost of anger.
3. RESTRAIN MY MOUTH
Anger control is mouth control. You cannot put your foot in your mouth when it’s closed. Sometimes, The more we talk the more we say the wrong thing.
In the book of James, we are given a formula for controlling anger.
“Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” ~ James 1:19 NIV
If you do the first two, open your ears and close your mouth, then you have a shot at controlling your anger. One of the myths about anger is that everybody has a reservoir (like a bucket) of anger and when that bucket gets filled up you need to pour it out.
Then, once you pour it out you’ll feel better and you’ll be peaceful again. The problem with this way of thinking is you don’t have a bucket of anger in your heart, you have an anger factory.
Study after study shows that releasing anger only creates more anger. Being aggressive, loud, and angry only creates more anger back at you which leads to a cycle of more anger.
4. REFLECT BEFORE REACTING
Delay is a tremendous remedy for anger. This doesn’t mean delaying indefinitely. If you’ve got an issue with someone you need to deal with it.
Anger delayed indefinitely becomes bitterness and that’s worse than anger. Bitterness is always a sin, anger isn’t. If you respond impulsively, you’re going to respond in anger. But if you hold on to your anger too long it turns to bitterness.
Self-Control: 7 Steps To Controlling Your Anger
The key is to not respond too soon or hold it in too long, but rather use wisdom to determine when the right time to respond is.
While in the stage of delay, you can ask yourself these three questions:
- Why am I angry?
- What do I really want?
- How do I get it?
Anger is always the symptom of the real problem. It is a warning light or an alarm bell letting you know something is wrong. Anger is a secondary emotion caused by something else. There are three basic reasons for anger: hurt, frustration, or fear.
When we are hurt or wounded, physically or emotionally, we get angry. When you stub your toe, that reaction is anger and the emotion comes out. Hurt turns into anger.
This is very important to know if you’re married. A lot of times when your spouse is angry it’s because they’re hurt. If someone comes up to you and says, “I’m really angry with you!” Your reaction is to put up a wall and become defensive. But if they say, “It hurt me when you said that, and here’s how it hurt me.” You’re more likely to be sympathetic toward that.
Frustration also causes anger. When we have to wait, when something is out of our control, when something seems unreasonable or impossible, or when things don’t go as planned we get angry. If you understand the source of the frustration and can communicate it, it makes it easier to eliminate the anger.
We also can get angry when we are afraid. The more insecure a person is, the harder time they have with their temper. People who are self-secure in Christ and have confidence in where they stand with God are not as likely to be angry at things.
But when we’re insecure and feel threatened we become angry. It is an emotion that God gave you that’s appropriate at certain times, but it’s how you deal with it that makes the difference.
5. RELEASE MY ANGER APPROPRIATELY
“If you become angry, don’t let your anger lead you into sin.” Ephesians 4:26 GNT
There is a way to be angry and not sin. Let’s look at three ways not to deal with anger:
- Don’t suppress your anger – Don’t store it inside. When you swallow your anger, your stomach keeps score (or your back, or your headaches, or your joints). If you don’t talk it out, you’ll take it out on your body.
- Don’t repress your anger – Don’t deny it. Denial and repressing your anger leads to depression. Sometimes those who are depressed are actually dealing with repressed anger, but because they are Christians they think they cannot express anger.
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- This leads to them freezing it instead, and frozen anger causes depression. When you deny you’re angry and claim you’re fine that’s being dishonest. There are honest examples of anger all throughout the Psalms. David just tells it like it is.”God, life stinks! Life is unfair. My enemies are all against me. And God so are You!
” God is not shocked by this.
- He can handle your anger. And after he gets it all out, David says, “God, I know You’re going to help me with this. Where else can I turn but to You? Nobody else has the answers.”
- Don’t express it in inappropriate ways – Don’t express your anger as pouting, sarcasm, or manipulation. If you put everyone has to baby you and walk on eggshells because you are upset. Sarcasm may feel good and witty at the time, but it will come back to haunt you. You hurt people with your words and destroy relationships. Manipulating the situation isn’t a healthy option either. Trying to get even to express anger leads to dumb decisions and regret.
Self-Control: 7 Steps To Controlling Your Anger
“Don’t befriend angry people or associate with hot-tempered people or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul.” Proverbs 22:24-25 NLT
Self-Control, 7 Steps to Controlling Your Anger. Anger is contagious. When people get angry and shout in your face, it’s easy to catch it. When somebody else gets loud, you get louder. This verse explains that how you express your anger is a learned behavior.
Whether this was from kids on the playground, your parents, your brothers, and sisters, or whoever else – the inappropriate ways of anger that you’ve used all these years, you learned every one of them.
The good news is, it can all be unlearned. You don’t have to go through the rest of your life expressing anger in unhealthy ways.
You can learn to express anger appropriately and God says He will give you the power to do it.
6. RETURN GOOD FOR EVIL
Booker T. Washington once said, “I will never let another man control my life by making me hate him.” When you say, “You make me mad” then you’re admitting “they control me.” You have given them the power to control your emotions.
The Bible says the way you show that you’re in control of a situation is by returning good for evil. It’s easy to retaliate but when you try to get even you’re just on the same level as them. But when you respond with good it puts you in a higher position.
“Never pay back evil for evil to anyone… Never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God… Overcome evil with good.”~ Romans 12:17-21 NLT
Self-Control: 7 Steps To Controlling Your Anger
You’re going to be hurt and disappointed at times in life. People are going to do bad things to you. You can either spend your time and energy retaliating or you can let God settle the score.
God is going to settle the score for the injustices in life, not just here but in eternity. When someone has hurt you who can do a better job of settling the score, you or God?
Now, all these steps we’ve talked about are helpful but unless you get a power beyond yourself you can’t do them. In and of yourself you don’t have enough willpower to tame the tongue. The tongue is uncontrollable from a human standpoint. That’s why the seventh key step is the one that ties it all together.
7. REQUEST GOD’S HELP
“Lord, help me control my tongue. Help me to be careful about what I say.”~ Psalm 141:3 NCV
God helps us manage our mouths and control our anger by going right to the source – our hearts. When the world puts pressure on you, it’s what is inside you that gets squeezed out.
“Whatever is in your heart determines what you say.”~ Matthew 12:34 NLT.
If you’re filled with irritation, then irritation is what comes out. You can’t clean up the well by simply painting the pump. If the water’s contaminated you’ve got to get to the source. And the source is not my mouth, it’s my mind and heart.
On the other hand, encouraging words demonstrate a happy heart. Gentle words demonstrate a loving heart. Kind words and comforting words demonstrate a heart at peace. When God changes us, He doesn’t just paint the pump. He gives us a new, clean heart.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God.”~ Psalm 51:10 NLT
All the self-help books in the world can’t do that. All the therapy in the world can’t give you a new heart. Only God can do that. When God deals with your anger, He deals with the root.
God recognizes we are angry because we are hurt and He offers to bind up our wounds and heal us.
Self-Control: 7 Steps To Controlling Your Anger
In conclusion, God sees when we are angry due to frustration and He guides us through peaceful valleys. And when we are afraid He pulls us near to help calm our fears. When we trust in Christ, we don’t have to be angry anymore.