The Approval Addiction by Joyce Meyer

Author:Joyce Meyer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-01-03T16:46:16+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Pressing Past Anger and Unforgiveness Do you ever get angry? Of course you do; we all do. God never tells us not to feel anger. He says, "Be ye angry, and sin not" (Ephesians 4:26KJV). We may feel anger, and that is important, but it is how we process our anger that is most important. It might seem at first that anger has nothing to do with approval addictions, but when we look at the root of excessive anger issues, they almost always find their seed in earlier problems. Anger certainly can be just another facet of our struggle with acceptance. I have found that many people who become frequently angry have a root of insecurity in their life. Those who are easily offended and touchy are insecure. They must be treated good to feel good about themselves. In some ways they expect to be treated badly because down deep inside they feel bad about themselves. However, when they are it angers them because what they feared about themselves has been confirmed, at least in their minds.

The word anger is one letter removed from the word danger.

God's Word tells us not to let the sun go down on our anger (See Ephesians 4:26 KJV). When we stay angry, we give the devil a foothold in our life (See v. 27). We open a door for him to work. Most of the ground gained by Satan in the Christian's life is gained through bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. People who easily fly into a rage always make a bad landing. When our emotions are out of control, so is our life. Anger makes our mouth work faster than our mind. We end up saying and doing things we are sorry for later.

God promises His children a blessed and abundant life, if they obey His commandments. Staying angry and harboring unkind feelings toward others is disobedience. We must realize sustained anger is sin. If we don't look at it for what it is, we may be tempted to hang onto it. William Secker, a seventeenth-century pastor, said, "He that would be angry and not sin, must be angry at nothing but sin." Be angry at the sin of anger, and you won't be tempted to keep it.In several of the books I have written I have included a chapter on anger. Although as a writer I strive to present fresh material, this is a subject that cannot be ignored. We must be quick to forgive. We must deal properly with the emotion of anger. If we do not, the consequences are devastating.

A wounded person cannot receive emotional healing while remaining angry. God commands us to forgive as freely as He has forgiven us (See Ephesians 4:32). In this life we must be willing to be very generous with forgiveness. It is one thing we usually need to give away, at least to some degree, every day.

"IT ISN'T FAIR" When we have been mistreated, it seems totally unfair to just forgive those who have hurt us.

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