Anger Management

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” (Proverbs 16:32)

In the 2003 movie Anger Management, Adam Sandler is a businessman who is wrongly sentenced to an anger management program, where he met an aggressive instructor Jack Nicholson who is not quite in control of his own anger. While the movie is a hit at the box office, anger is no laughing matter. In the Bible, we find that it is the will of God that we act like the prudent man who lords over his anger. Whenever he is provoked, he restrains his wrath, rules his spirit, and controls his temper. He is slow to anger because he is under the control of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

He is like Paul Newman in Absence of Malice. He practices self-control at all times and under all circumstances. He suppresses resentments and practices reticence as he is not one to speak the first thing that comes to his mind. He excuses affronts and injuries from others, giving them the benefit of the doubt. In God’s anger management program, we are to lord over anger and not let anger lord over us. We should be able by the grace of God to restrain any outbursts of offensive expressions manifested through our words and actions. We should avoid all causes for shame by covering over offenses that come our way (Proverbs 12:16), instead of being filled with resentment, malice and belligerence toward those who injured, affronted or slighted us in any way, real or imagined.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus told a woman of Canaan who asked Him to heal her demon-possessed daughter, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” (Matthew 15:26) She could have flown into a rage and said, “You aint no Snoop Dogg, who are you calling a dog?” But she replied, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table” (Matthew 15:27). As a result, her daughter was healed because she humbled herself and refused to be offended.

In 2 Kings chapter 5, we find that Naaman was a powerful general of Syria, but his anger almost cost him his life. First, he was furious because Elisha sent his servant, instead of coming to see him personally. Second, when the prophet instructed him on how to get healed by dipping in the Jordan river seven times, he went away in a rage ( 2 Kings 5:12) as he obviously didn’t like taking orders from anybody but his king.

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