“The Incredible Hulk”, one of Marvel’s famous superheroes gets his powers when He becomes angry. He goes from being the calm Dr. Bruce Banner to a huge green monster with incredible strength and power when he is angered. Anger is what fuels his power. Like the Hulk how many of us in real life are fueled by anger? We may not turn into a big green monster, but do we turn into someone that no one likes to be around?

Anger is one of those complicated emotions that we are all born with. You might get angry when things do not go your way as a coping mechanism to deal with your frustration. You might also get angry when under stress. Parents get angry at their kids all their time when they disobey them. Whatever your reason for getting angry, the good news is that being angry is not always a bad thing. How we deal with our anger and what we do when we are angry is what determines if we sin against God.

The Bible says that is it okay to be angry but warns that human anger can turn into sin. James 1:20 says “human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” Paul also warns us in Ephesians 4:26 “In your anger do not sin” Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry”. What this means is that as much as possible we need to control our anger and how we react when we are angered by things of this world so we do not end up sinning.

People always point to the instance of Jesus in the temple to say that Jesus lashed out and lost his cool when He was angry. We read in Mark 11:15, “He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.” If you read closely you will see that Jesus merely drove out the people and overturned the tables. It doesn’t say He was fuming from the nostrils and violently throwing the tables around like the Hulk which is how this story is so often portrayed. He merely drove the people out of the temple and flipped the tables over, both of which can be done in a gentle and calm manner which is the nature of Jesus anyway.

Paul says in Ephesians 4:31, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” As Christians, we need to work on removing anger from our lives so that we grow spiritually. his is not easy to do but if we do not control our anger, then due to our sinful nature we are going to sin against God and do something that we will regret forever.

Controlling our anger is very important for us to grow as Christians. The bible says in Psalm 145:8. that “the Lord is compassionate and slow to anger and rich in love.” We have not grown as Christians until we also learn to be compassionate and slow to anger like Jesus. Anger management only comes with practice and learning how to control our emotions. You will get better at this as you walk with the Lord and the holy spirit will guide you to make the right choices when faced with anger.