"Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath - Ephesians 4:26
Years ago I struggled with anger....and from time to time it rears it's head.. I've been told it's a generational curse...POOH! - It is born of my own selfish sin nature! And I've learned not to blame it on someone else...take responsibility, repent, and ask the Holy Spirit to work a new fruit in me...
It took some time to realize why I got angry and when I allowed it to have its way with me. It would happen, often when I got so frustrated with the inability to control someone or something else, that I seemed to think I had a right to controlling...or being exposed for my error and my own willful disobedient choices...
Where did that inherent right I felt I had, come from?
Well, back in the Garden, yes, that Garden, the first garden...Satan tempted Eve with something that she was not permitted to have.... Satan twisted her reasoning for not having what seemed pleasing to the eye. He taunted her with a rationalization that it's within her domain, her right, and being withheld unrighteously - therefore, she must have been serving a bad god!
Once she ate it, Adam soon followed....then they were confronted with their transgression. Adam immediately, almost violently, burst with a blame that tore a huge rift between all parties . Between Adam and God and between Adam and Eve. He burst out, "the woman that YOU gave me!!!" - Adam scolded and blamed everyone else but himself!
Gee....is that where most anger comes from....not getting my way? My wanting to be selfish and demanding all others to bow to me....to be my own god?
Yep!
Now, I'm not talking about when we are angered with injustice - impropriety - or unrighteousness. I'm talking about the anger that causes us to sin...Self Worship - Self Idolatry! The erroneous attitude that says we have the right to what we want! That we deserve what ever we desire at the expense of others, because we are the center of our own universe!
The Anger and violence comes when we hit the wall - When we've been denied what we expect or are fought back on what we tried to take. Every selfish, egotistical cell in our body and mind cries against the denial of acquisition and the reality, that we are NOT the center of the universe!
We struggle and fight for control of things we have no right to. Assuming that we can secure them in our own flesh and power of mind or strength. How frail we are and we don't even realize it....How quickly the idol can be cast down and broken into pieces!
Self control, the control of self, is a fruit of the spirit. It is contrary to our sinful, selfish nature. Control over self, is really the only control we are granted in this life. Yet we scamper for control in so many areas. True self control is worked in us, by the Holy Spirit's power. It does not come by self deprivation it is a WORK ONLY in Christ - only by the Holy Spirit's power at work to change our flawed and fallen understandings and to debunk the myths of the garden...
We are Not gods
We cannot be gods
There is only ONE God and He will not give His glory to another...The sooner we surrender to that understanding, the more anchored we are in Him and the less frustrated we are with life's inevitable kinks.