I Am Bitter - Part 2 - When Anger Takes Over The Heart

Do you say, My anger is justified, so I can hold onto it. Are you holding onto something that hurt you deeply?  Do you replay it in your mind over and over? Today, I will share three tips about how God can set you free from anger.

Today we will define what anger is and I will share three steps about how God you can be free from anger.

Tip 1: What anger does.

I can relate to your feelings of anger and resentment. Bitterness turns into anger –at first, anger feels like control. Bur in reality, anger increases emotional exhaustion. God explains in His word, “Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.” James 1:20  

Tip #2: Anger is a signal – not a solution.

Anger, like bitterness, feels like protection…but it becomes a prison. The Bible says, “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” Eph. 4:26 Anger is a signal, not a solution.

Tip #3: Bring your anger to God. 

Confess to God – yes. It takes honesty.  1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

Repent to God – returning to God and confessing your sin, is admitting to God, Yes “I did it.” The act of repentance is the choice we can make to turn away from our sin. You can say, “Lord, I repent of my sin.” Repentance means a change of heart. We find in Psalm 51:10, a sample prayer. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  Bring your angry heart, your hurting heart, honestly to God. This is not suppression – this is surrender. 

Today’s unshakable truth: In Christ, you can be free from anger.
I told God, “I give You my reaction before it becomes regret.”  I challenge you to use the three tips to invite God to heal your angry heart:

Tip 1: What anger does. Refusing to release our anger and resentments increases tension and stress, depletes energy, causes isolation, and prevents old wounds from healing. God explains in His word, “Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.” James 1:20  

Step 2: Anger is a signal, not a solution. Burying your feelings is like leaving a trail of unexploded emotional dynamite. The Bible says, “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” Eph. 4:26

Step 3: Bring your anger honestly to God. Pause – Pray – Surrender – Confess – Repent - – Release . Instead of reacting, you return to God. Bring your angry heart, your hurting heart, honestly to God. This is not suppression – this is surrender. Friend, you don’t have to stay imprisoned by your anger. If today’s message spoke to your heart, take a moment right now to pause and pray:
 “Lord, thank You for forgiving me of my sins. God, I give you my reaction before it becomes regret.”

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Transcript

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Have you heard yourself saying, my anger is justified, so I can hold on to it? Do you say, you don't know what they did to me? Are you holding on to something that hurt you deeply? Are you replaying it in your mind over and over? Today I'll share three tips about how God can set you free from anger. Restore your heart starts right now. Each week I bring tips and tools from God's Word to help you identify and overcome triggers, trauma, or tragedy. When your heart is hurting or broken, God's heart breaks right along with yours. If you're anything like me, you've asked questions like, why am I going through this? Or how long will my suffering last? Or will this pain ever stop? You felt abandoned and alone. Be encouraged. You've found a friend here who knows. God understands each hurt. God cares about each loss. Everything that has happened to you has broken God's heart. Let's get started. Today we're going to talk about what anger is, and I'll share three steps about how God can set you free from anger. Tip number one, what anger does. I can relate to your feelings of anger and resentment. You might remember in episode 23, I explained how in our early years of ministry, my first husband, Pastor Paul, was fired from his pastoral position. No reason, just to get him out of the way so the senior pastor's best friend could take the job. The rejection was sudden and harsh. There was an emotional ripping and tearing as we were forced to move on from those we had grown to love. My husband lost a job and we also lost our church family. Months passed while we continued to add more fuel to our hurt and our hate. We were angry and increasingly bitter. Our situation might be different than yours, but I trust that in sharing my story, you might see what happens when anger is unresolved. Bitterness turns into anger. At first, anger feels like control, but in reality, anger increases emotional exhaustion. God explains in his word in James 1, verse 20 human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. Refusing to release our resentment and our anger increases tension and stress. It also depletes our energy, causes isolation, and prevents old wounds from healing. Grudges steal joy, disrupt sleep, and harden hearts and arteries. Such bitter emotions can even get in the way of our prayers. Letting God control our anger sets us free of holding onto offense. The process of letting go is good for our physical and spiritual health. In 1 Corinthians 13, 5 it says, love keeps no record of wrongs. Resentment and anger keep us stuck unless we see each one of them as a sin. If we choose God's way of forgiving our offenders only through his power, can we give up the grudge and our right to get even? And when we do, we will gain peace, a sound mind, and restful sleep. We can train our minds to refuse to keep score of the wrongs others have committed against us through the power of God's word. Tip number two: anger is a signal, not a solution. Anger, like bitterness, feels like protection, but it becomes a prison. Our enemy Satan may use anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness to keep us from growing to maturity in Christ. He wants us to be so tangled up in feeling we didn't deserve to be mistreated or wronged that we think it's impossible for us to break free. But these emotions are like a red warning light on our car dashboard. The light's there to warn us of a serious problem with the engine. As we talked about in episode 23 on bitterness, consciously ignoring our feelings is not healthy. Burying your feelings is like leaving a trail of unexploded emotional dynamite. You might avoid immediate pain, but over time it can cause you to stumble emotionally, physically, and relationally. Expressing and processing emotions, even in small doses, helps you move forward without being tripped up by what you've buried. The Bible says in Ephesians 4.26, in your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you're still angry. You might remember Jesus did express anger in his earthly ministry, and in every case, his anger was pure, righteous, without sin. The Bible records several instances where he showed strong emotions, but it was always with the right motivation and self-control. We think we're in control when we hang on to grievances and keep track of wrongs done against us. We think we have a right to be angry or keep our distance from someone who has not been nice to us. Offenses may seem harmless, but even gossip or misunderstandings can deeply wound us. Holding on to a grudge is lying to yourself. We think we can control situations by refusing to let go. This doesn't damage the person we're angry at as much as it damages us. Remember, anger is a signal, not a solution. Tip number three: bring your anger to God. That's right. He wants it. Confess to God. That's right. It takes honesty, brutal honesty. We can choose to admit our sin to God and get to the root of what happened. God is the only one who can forgive our sins. 1 John 1 9 says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It helps if we confess our sins at the time the offense happens. That way we keep short accounts with God. Our healing may come sooner than we think. Confession is saying, I did it. Jesus loves each of us, that's you and me, enough to die on the cross, and his blood has covered a multitude of sin. That's 1 Peter 4.8. Jesus died for all sin. God assures us in Hebrews 9:6, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. After Jesus' gruesome death, burial in a borrowed tomb, and three days in the ground, Jesus' resurrection power invites us to the next step. As you have honestly brought your anger to God, I encourage you to stay with the process, even though it is painful. Repent to God. That's returning to God and confessing your sin is admitting to God, I did it. Yes, I did. The act of repentance is the choice you and I can make to turn away from our sin. We can say, Lord, I repent of my sin. Repentance means a change of heart. We find in Psalm 51:10 a sample prayer. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. The prayer was prayed by King David after he slept with another man's wife, she became pregnant. Instead of admitting his affair, the king had Bathsheba's husband killed to cover up his sin. Eventually, King David could no longer hide his guilt. After he was confronted by the prophet Nathan, King David's heart was broken by his sin. But he couldn't forgive himself. He confessed his sin and asked God to renew him. Father God will do the same for you and me. I am so proud of you as you have taken time today to pause, pray, surrender, confess, repent, and release. So instead of reacting or running, as has been some of our former ways of dealing with things that are not very pleasant to deal with, you have chosen to return to God. Bring your angry heart, friend, your hurting heart. Bring it honestly and vulnerably to God. This, my friend, is not suppression, it's surrender. And God is waiting for you with open arms. Today's unshakable truth, in Christ, you can be free from anger. When you feel hurt, angry, or misunderstood, like Pastor Paul and I did when we were fired from the church staff. Remember, surrendering your anger to God is the pathway to healing. As you honestly bring your feelings and hurt to God, he can heal you. I told God, Lord, I give you my reaction before it becomes regret. And that happens when we pray, surrender, confess, repent, and release. God will cover us in his peace, a peace that no offender can steal and no lie can undo. I challenge you to use the three tips to invite God to heal your angry heart. Step number one, what anger does. When we refuse to release our anger and resentments, it increases tension and stress, drains our energy, causes us to isolate, and prevents old wounds from healing. In James 1, verse 20, it says human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. Step number two, anger is a signal, not a solution. Burying your feelings is like leaving a trail of unexploded emotional dynamite. The Bible says in Ephesians 4 26, in your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Step number three, bring your anger honestly to God. Pause, pray, surrender, confess, repent, and release. Instead of reacting, you return to God. Bring your angry heart, that heart that's hurting, that's breaking, bring it honestly to God. This is surrender. Friend, you don't have to stay imprisoned by your anger. And I hope that you will take those steps. If today's message spoke to your heart, take a moment right now to pause and pray. Lord, thank you for forgiving me of my sins. God, I give you my reaction before it becomes regret. Thanks for joining me on Restore Your Heart. This is the I Am Bitter series, episode 2, When Anger Takes Over the Heart. If this message of God's unshakable truth resonated with you, please share this episode with a friend who's feeling angry or bitter. Let's help each other walk in freedom. You don't have to wonder if God will free you, and you don't have to carry that anger any longer. With Christ as your ally, you can't receive his healing for your angry heart today. Please subscribe and leave a review at S-H-E-R-Y-L, G S N Tom.com. I'm Cheryl Geesbreck Turner, and this is Restore Your Heart. I hope you join me next time as we talk about part three of the I Am Bitter series, I'm Learning to Forgive. See you then.