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When Your Fuse Burns Down

The Bible talks a lot about patience, and anyone who reads the Scriptures can’t help but notice the many verses that address this aspect of human relations.  What is less obvious is that a common thread connects most of these scriptures. The main words for patience found in both the Old and New Testaments are similar in meaning and connote “long-suffering.”  In fact, the New Testament word we most often see translated “patience” (the Greek word makrothumia) literally means “long-anger” or “long-burning” – like a long fuse attached to a stick of dynamite! 

But everyone has limits to their patience; everyone has a “fuse” that burns down eventually – when patience gives out to anger.  So whether we are someone who naturally has a “short fuse” and whose anger is more quickly ignited or whether we are more patient and have a “longer” fuse, as Christians we all have to control the anger we sooner or later experience.
 
Anger in itself is not wrong.  It is a necessary emotion, but one which must be applied carefully. The Bible shows that God himself exhibits “righteous anger” – for example, when he is angered by the mistreatment of helpless refugees, widows, and orphans (Exodus 22:21-24) – and the more we learn to see things as God does, the more we will be angered by such things, also. But proper expression of anger requires three things, and we will look at them in turn.

Proper Motivation 

Once we feel our anger “fuse” has begun to burn, we need to immediately take stock of what it is that is motivating the anger.  Are we angry because our pride was somehow hurt, because we feel others are not respecting us, not giving us due credit, or have insulted us or hurt us in some other way?  If so, that anger must be controlled as quickly as possible.  A good rule of thumb is that if we are angry about something that has been done to us personally, we need to be particularly careful that the motivation for our anger is right and not just an expression of the “get even” desires of human nature.

Another thing we should consider when human relationships are involved is whether we are getting angry at a person or at an unacceptable behavior. The Christian’s motivation in anger should never be to correct a person, but to correct a situation.

These are things we can all reflect upon.  What causes anger in us when we do become angry, and what is our goal in expressing anger?  Thinking this through in order to curb angry feelings that are not properly motivated is the beginning of being angry without sin.

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