How to Control Your Anger

"Be angry, yet do not sin." Do not let the sun set while you are still angry” (Ephesians 4:26)

Notes this… you can be angry and not sin and you can be angry and sin. One way (according to Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount) you can be angry and sin is by killing the person you’re angry at… definitely a sin and there are probably other ways to sin in your anger as well.

The second part of this verse, “Do not let the sun set while you’re angry” may have a non-sinful application. The Apostle may be giving an instruction on how to live happily.

Of course the sun sets long before most people go to bed but have you ever noticed that if you are angry and you go to bed that you can’t sleep? And of course you pay for it the next day when you go to work unrested.

Sometimes when we go to bed we don’t want to be angry or have any other kind of anxiety but we just can’t get those emotions out of our heads.

So what do we do in that situation? Here are a few ideas…

- Distract your brain by reading a book. Of course the Bible would be the best book to read but any book that fully engages your brain.

- Listen to mind soothing music.

- Watch a TV show.

- Go exercise or get involved in some activity that requires a focused mind.

- Go visit some people with some real problems like people in the hospital or in a nursing home. I had an employee tell me that when she was young her mother would take her to the nursing home to play games with those old folks. She said she loved that and learned a lot.

- If all that fails and I doubt that it will… take a doctor prescribed Valium.

Some anger is good and some anger is bad. God does not want us to be angry, spiteful people that act upon our anger in a sinful way. He wants us to be happy and sin free. Control your anger… don’t let it control you.