For the past eight days we have been having trouble with our Internet service. It has been a frustrating week as our service has been going in and out. Just before midnight, the other night, I finished the final edits to the next day’s post. As soon as I hit the “update” button the Internet went out and most all of the data was lost. It was not saved and I had no way of retrieving it.
I was very angry at my Internet provider!
Whenever you get angry with someone or something you are, in effect, giving that person or thing control over you. Your volitional choice to get angry allows the person or thing to control your thoughts, emotions, attitudes and behavior. In that moment of anger, you believe that person or thing has something you want and you become demanding until you get your craving satisfied.
The other night my Internet provider, though they did not know it, controlled me. They had something I had to have and anger was my way of showing how much they “owned me.” Not until I repented of my sin did they lose their control over me.
Therefore, an angry person is typically an insecure or fearful person. He is a person who says, “I need something from you and because I cannot get what I want, I will be angry with you.” Anger is a sinful response to get a craving met.
Anger is an insecure person’s manipulative method or tactic to get what he wants. – RLT
A Real Need
A person dying of thirst will do most anything, i.e. fight, in order to get a splattering of water to quench his thirst. At that moment in his life, the desire for water controls him. He feels insecure (fearful), and rightly so in this illustration, because he will die eventually without water. Therefore, he chooses to fight in order to quench that need.
A Sinful Need
When an infant does not get her way, she may choose anger as a tactic to get what she wants. She feels she “needs” something as well. This craving to get something turns to anger as a tactic to acquire the perceived need. Anger is a typical response for people who do not get their way. The infant’s desire to have the toy (she believes she “needs” it) is so great that she will succumb to the “power of another” (the power of the toy in this illustration) in order to get that desire quenched.
When we express anger toward another person, we are giving up our power or our strength, to the control of that person, until we get that perceived need met. This should be a motivating reason not to get angry with anyone. We should refuse to let whatever it is the other person has to dominate our thinking and emotions. The angry person is an idolator.
Self-control is the biblical response for a person who is tempted to give their control over to another. The way you walk in Spirit-empowered self-contorl is by repenting of whatever it is that you are craving.
Application Questions
- What is it that you want so bad that you are willing to sin in order to get it?
- What is it that you are not getting, that you are willing to sin in order to get it?
Other Related Articles
Read these articles on the Fallacy of Mutual Need Meeting
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