Anger and sin

[Depleted]

Oh wait, I mixed up my terms. I was thinking to pants someone was to yank their underwears up. What's that called? Is pantsing someone to pull their pants down...? Sorry, I don't condone that.

Wedgie = up
Pants = down.

Don't worry though. I expect underwear underneath.

(And the poor Brits have got to be confused because pants are underwear over there. lol)

 

[Depleted]

Yeah, 1ofthem, it's good to understand a situation and it's good to just be honest. It's no good to believe ourselves to be not angry when we really are. That's just delusion. Walking in truth is admitting having a problem forgiving someone for something awful they've done. It isn't walking in delusion.

Walking in truth means being honest, not perfect.

The hard part, (at least for me), in forgiving someone is to first go through how they saw it.

I'll give an easy example, even though I'm thinking more along the lines of someone cheating on their spouse.

A parking spot. I live in South Philly. We have 25 houses on one side of the block and 26 houses on the other side of the block. Each house is attached and 16 feet wide, and there is parking on both sides of the street. Now, measure the length of your car. One neighbor has one of those half-cars, and it's the only car in the neighborhood that fits, in its entirety, in front of just one house. More people have two cars than people with no cars, so parking is forever a serious contest in this neighborhood.

There's a parking spot with a car in the street before it and after it. Who gets that spot? If you're the car in front of the spot, obviously you think you do. But, if you're the car behind the spot and can fit in it without having to do the parallel parking thing, obviously you think you get it. But if I lose the spot to you, I'm angry. (Actually, I usually do just consider it a game, so don't get angry. Only after grocery shopping does "close parking spot" become important.)

Being a believer, I have to get over it and forgive the other person. No big deal if she's one of many people I don't know. Big deal if she is truly my neighbor. If I don't forgive, I will start counting up the number of times she "steals" my parking spot, the number of times she disses me, the number of times.... And that becomes one bit bundle of raging bitterness.

I can do the simple thing and smile an Okay at her when we both walk by, (assuming we do, since I might have to park two blocks over.) But if it's not okay, that's just covering up the beginning of a long boil. That's not what God calls us to do.

I have to see it from her side before I talk to her and tell her why I'm upset. And I have to see it from her side first, or telling her I'm upset means, "You dirty _____" first. Truly forgiving her looks closer to this:

"I'm sorry things got heated there. I'm sorry I got nasty at you. I had a rough day, and was looking to come home to relax when that parking spot opened up. I was only thinking about myself. I didn't think that you could want to get home just as much as I did. Will you please forgive me?"

Too often we think forgiveness is just an apology. Real forgiveness is realizing the other person is just as much a real person with real feelings and real reasons for doing whatever they did. That includes everyone from a parking-spot grabber, to a cheater, to a kid going into a high school and killing 17 other people. It's realizing that we are just as much a sinner as they are, and only through the grace of God were we forgiven. And, only through the grace of God are we able to forgive those who hurt us the most.

Sometimes it's too dangerous to forgive face-to-face. (Would have been dumb for a student to go up to that killer to tell him she forgave him for killing her friend.) But, in any other situation we really should openly, face-to-face seek forgiveness..

We should. Not to say I do. I'm still more of the kind of person that wants to knee someone in the crotch if he hurts me.

But, if we're listening to the Lord, the crotch option really shouldn't stay on the table too long.

 

[shaneaccyl]

When does it become rightous flip over a table? I don't think God would punish a cop for busting in a door while saving someone. Would someone punching a pillow to release stress be sinning in his/her anger? Wouldn't it come down to what's in the heart, considering the circumstance?

i dont how you understand that ..its your opinion..do you really know what anger means when it comes to God? explain?
speaking man's anger your anger also examine your heart sometimes we get angry in wrong way in order to be in control of circumstances or what we want has never been satisfied...heart is deceitful and it beyond you comprehend..

 

[EarnestQ]

We know it's okay to be angry. The Bible says to not sin in our anger, though. At one point does our anger become sin? Society would say someone has an anger problem if the person flips. Jesus flipped tables in the temple. We know Jesus never sinned. Yet it would be considered not just destruction of property, but sinful as well. We know working out is a good mechanism to handle anger. That can't be the only form, though. So at one point would it be considered sinful in our anger?

Anger is an emotional response we can learn to control to a large extent. We can also learn how to deal with anger. My favorite way to face anger is to pray for the person that is triggering the anger.

I used to work for a lady that I didn't approve of. Every time I thought of her I would get angry. Eventually, I prayed for her every time I thought of her. Then when she got into legal trouble I could, with a clear conscience, go and ask to pray with her.