Our Battle with Anger

I looked up online an article about something that I saw a long time ago in professional football. I think it illustrates the topic I want to address with you. CBS Sportsline, this goes back to December 19, 1999. The article title is Brown's Offensive Tackle, Pushes Referee to the Ground. The article says Orlando Brown wasn't going to let this one slide, and his instincts told the Cleveland Browns' offensive tackle to strike back at his attacker, who was a game official. Then it says, In a Fit of Uncontrolled Anger.

I'll come back to that phrase because anger is the topic of our sermon there this morning. In a fit of uncontrolled anger, Brown stormed back onto the field and shoved Referee Jeff Triplett to the ground during the first half of Sunday's game against Jacksonville after accidentally being struck in the eye by Triplett's weighted penalty flag. It was just a freak accident, as the article goes on.

The penalty took place. Triplett pulled it out through the yellow flag. It's weighted, and it somehow went into the open area around Orlando Brown's helmet. It hit him in the eye, damaged his eye, and he lost it. He stormed back out onto the field, pushed the Referee to the ground, and, of course, got promptly ejected. Coach said, I've never seen anything like that. I was shocked. The moment was surreal and scary for 72,000 fans, players, and the coaches. But a fit of uncontrolled anger. Anger is a topic we need to address within the body of Christ from time to time. Anger is an emotion created by God.

We will feel anger. The question always gets down to the question of control. Are we controlling anger? Or, like in this story, does anger at times control us? We have Scriptures that tell us that God is angry with the wicked every day. But God is perfectly in control. We have examples of human beings who acted with great anger. And it usually leads down the wrong path for them.

We are also told that we're not to be ignorant of Satan's devices. And anger can be one of the great devices that Satan the Devil uses in his attempt to keep us out of the kingdom of God. So we're going to deal with the topic of anger today.

Our battle with anger is the topic, the subject, the title. Our battle with anger. Now, first of all, let's define the word. The Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language that I have at the house defines the word anger as this. A feeling that may result from injury, mistreatment, opposition, etc. It usually shows itself in a desire to hit out at something or someone else.

Synonyms are wrath, indignation, rage, ire. Now, anger is a part of the world we live in. Some discover how to use anger as a management tool. In fact, some of us will remember General Alexander Haig from the Vietnam era, who then became the under Ronald Reagan. He was Secretary of State. One time, Secretary of State Haig said, Anger is a management vehicle. I have known people who can put on a show.

They can turn on anger just like that, and then they can turn it off. A foreman might walk on a job site, turn on the anger, blow up at a bunch of workers, and get them, build a fire under them, and then turn it off and drive away from the job site. Anger manifests itself via numerous physical symptoms. It might be muscle tension, there might be scowling and grinding of teeth. There can be glaring, there can be clenching of fists. Flushing. Some people turn, we say, it beat red. Some just have that ruddy complexion, and if they get all flustered, they just turn bright red.

Others turn pale. Others break out in perspiration, or these nervous twitches. So anger affects us differently, and oftentimes it's even directed at what we might call stupid inanimate objects. A man comes home frustrated from work, gets to the house, yells at his wife and children, goes out, and the mower doesn't start, and so he throws it against the fence. A lot of times anger is learned behavior. It gets back to how it was modeled to us as children growing up.

In my research, and I won't read the story, but there was a researcher who went to an Amish school, and he observed that the Amish children playing in the schoolyard, you may remember how it was on your schoolyard, and usually, you know, it's just scuffling is going to take place when you get a lot of testosterone together at one place, anyhow. And he noticed that none of the Amish children yelled at each other. And so later he asked the schoolmaster, and the schoolmaster merely said, well, have you ever heard an Amish man or woman yell at someone? So the children do not grow up in households where they hear yelling, shouting, screaming, and therefore they do not learn that.

But those who grow up in houses, where there is a lot of that, then they do learn that. Research has shown that anger can be hazardous to one's health. They've actually done research and used some of the technology, x-ray techniques, sonograms, and they've had heart patients when under different situations, including situations that made them angry. They've done scans, and they've shown that the heart does not pump the blood to the extremities the way that it did just before.

Well, we should consider three Greek words of the New Testament that are used to describe anger, or sometimes it's translated wrath. What I have here comes from Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Let's turn to Luke chapter 4. The first Greek word is thumos. T-H-U-M-O-S. Thumos. Thumos is used 18 times in the New Testament, and the word can mean a violent rage.

The Strong's Concordance defines thumos as passion, anger, heat, anger boiling up, ardor, the wine of passion, inflaming wine. Let's look in Luke 4, and we begin in verse 21. I promptly went to Matthew 4, so I'll be there in a moment. Luke 4, and in verse 21, down through 30, we have the story, but Jesus is back home at Nazareth, as you could see up in verse 16. He is there on the Sabbath day. He read from Isaiah. He, in verse 21, began to say to them, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. And all bore witness to him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.

The gracious words from his mouth. But then they began asking, Is not this Joseph's son? He said to them, You will surely say this proverb to me, Physician, heal yourself, whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do here also in your country. Well, you know the story goes on, and yet let's go down to verse 28. And this is where we find Thumos, translated as the word wrath.

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. Because he had just explained to them that I can't do the same mighty works here as I did in Capernaum, because you don't believe. And they were filled with wrath, they were filled with Thumos, and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him over the cliff, and he passed through the crowd and got away. But outside of Nazareth, there is this rock cliff. So they were experiencing uncontrolled wrath or anger, and they became murderous in their thoughts.

Now, let's go to Galatians 5. Galatians 5, because here we have, late in the chapter, a listing of the works of the flesh. And that is followed by the fruits of the spirit. But in the works of the flesh, in Galatians 5, beginning in verse 19, we read, Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies. Now notice, outbursts of wrath. That is a work of the flesh, because when it is an outbreak, outburst, it is not under control the way that God would have a Christian control himself.

Selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. And it goes on saying those who practice that won't enter the kingdom of God. Therefore, if we are one who is subject to outbursts of wrath, we need to be warned that we have to have God's forgiveness and strength to overcome, or we won't be in the family of God. Now, a number of times this word thumos, and again it's used 18 times in the New Testament Greek, but a number of times it is used in reference to God's justified wrath upon humanity's sins. In fact, Revelation, the book of Revelation, 10 of those usages take place in Revelation, where it talks about the coming fierceness of the wrath of God.

But again, it is a question of control. For God, he is perfectly in control. For man, we walk a slippery slope when we give in to wrath. So that's thumos. Number two is orgae. That's the way it's pronounced, but it's just spelled O-R-G-E. Orgae. Now, this Greek word is used 36 times in the New Testament, and it can vary from meaning God's wrath to meaning man's resentment. From the Strong's concordance, it is anger, temper.

It is agitation of the soul, violent emotion, anger, wrath, indignation. John the Baptist used that word, and we won't turn to Matthew 3, but it addresses where he began his ministry, was baptizing, and people from all over the country came to his teaching.

Then it says some of the Pharisees and the scribes came to him, and John said to them, Who has warned you of the wrath, that's orgae, the wrath to come? So they recognized there is a time of divine punishment, a divine pouring out of God's anger upon rebellious, disobedient mankind, and they were fleeing from that. And that's when he told them, you need to go and bring forth the proof that you really are repentant before I'm going to baptize you. Let's go to James chapter 1. James 1, and we'll read verses 19 and 20.

James 1 verse 19. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, and wrath is orgae. For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Ouch. We read a verse like that, and it should get our attention. For the most part, this orgae of man is not under control, so the fruits then are not working God's righteousness.

The fruits are then destroying. So that's orgae. Uncontrolled anger is inconsistent with the mind of God. Alright, let's go to the third word, and this one is a little more difficult to say. And I may not come very close, but who among us will really even know? Agonoctaio. Agonoctaio. There is a related word, agonoctesis. Let me spell just the first one I mentioned. A-G-A-N-A-K-T-E-O. Agonoctaio. Now, this word and the other form only use eight times in the New Testament, and generally they have the meaning of indignation.

Indignation, as it is used, is an expression of anger that is accompanied by inappropriate behavior. Now, that's kind of, of course, it was the word thumos back when the crowd went crazy at Nazareth, and they wanted to throw Christ off the cliff. Uncontrolled anger way beyond wrath and indignation, and it was about to be accompanied by inappropriate behavior. Let's go to Mark chapter 10. Mark 10. And notice, first of all, verse 14.

Just breaking in on the thought here where the disciples, there were those who brought children requesting that Jesus ask a blessing upon them. The disciples were turning them back. Mark 10, verse 14. But when Jesus saw it, he was greatly displeased, and that was Agonakhtaeo. And said to them, Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them for of such as the kingdom of God. But again, with Jesus, it was under perfect control. But I'm sure he was very perturbed with the disciples' attitude and rejection of little children, and he let them hear about it.

But again, he was in perfect control. Well, later in the chapter, notice verse 41. Again, just breaking in on the story, but right on the heels of one of the stories.

It happened more than once, but you had James and John and their mother, and the request may one sit on your right hand and the other one on your left hand. And in verse 41, when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. So there again, Agonakhtaeo, greatly displeased. Now, we should be indignant at actions, events that take place in society around us. We have school shootings.

We had not that long ago a crazy that went off in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and it should have thoroughly disturbed all of us. It should have angered us. But we must be in control. We must be in control. I think that that congregation set a marvelous example of coming out quickly and offering forgiveness, and I think it diffused what could have been a real powder keg like we saw not that long ago up in Fulton, Missouri.

And I really applaud the actions of so many of that congregation. They did great good. But we here on the news, ISIS treatment of Christians, whether it's across North Africa or various parts of the Middle East, there are videos that they take apparently of children in a cage having to fight each other. And they have people, they have put under water to drown, and they have photographed that. We should be righteously indignant about that, and to be praying for Christ to come and to stop that foolishness.

But again, it has to be controlled in the long term. And we'll see this. In fact, we'll go to that scripture next. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4. We will be angry, but we have to deal with it. We have to control it. We have to process it. And we don't hold on to it forever, because all kinds of health problems come if we hold on to it.

And then we're building like a pressure cooker where the lid's going to blow off someday. Now, Ephesians 4 verse 26. It tells us, Be angry and do not sin. Now, this tells us a number of things. On the one hand, it tells us, Be angry. That is an emotion God created within us. I cannot imagine Jesus' actions when He found the buying and the selling at His Father's house, His Father's temple, and the driving of the flocks and the offenders out. I cannot imagine anything but a very angry man doing that. In Matthew 23, when He spoke to all the woes to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, I can only envision an angry man, but he was righteously indignant.

And more importantly, he was in full control. But then he also processed it each time. Verse 27 says, Nor give place to the devil. I didn't finish verse 26. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. It is a matter that we go to God and we process it. We work it through. We put it in God's hands and we trust Him to take care of it. But the warning, don't give place to the devil. If we give in to anger, we can open the door for Satan to get his foot into our mind. And turn us down a road we don't want to go.

There are all kinds of works available. I really haven't looked in recent years for books, but you have... I used to have a book, Anger, the Misunderstood Emotion, by Carol Tavares. A lot of good thoughts. I even found this...it's kind of dated now. Tim LaHaye, How to Went Over Depression, probably goes back into the 80s, I imagine. I make that the 70s. But there's a chapter on anger, anger and depression. Back in the 80s, we had a couple of books that came out. The church recommended...this is 1981, How to Really Love Your Teenager. The other one was How to Really Love Your Child, written by Dr. Ross Campbell. But he has an entire chapter on teenage anger. And it's...again, wealth of material out there. James Dobson has a book, Emotions Can You Trust Them? And one of those has a book just totally devoted to anger. The Internet, there's a wealth of material out there. I found this one. This is actually from the Counseling Center of the University of South Florida. And Coping with Anger. And here they have their own 12-step program, but it's focused on dealing with anger. So there's a tremendous amount of material out there that we can go to and look at. But the Bible also has a tremendous amount to say about it. I looked up some quotes on the Internet. There's a website, Sermon Illustrations, that I go to once in a while. And then they've got Sermon Illustrations on anger. And some quotes. Well, Ben Franklin said, Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame. And there's a lot of truth to that. Again, it's the question, do we gain control somewhere along the line? Ben Franklin quote, Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

William Penn, It is he who is in the wrong who first gets angry.

Let's go to Proverbs. Proverbs 22. Again, a lot of places we could go to in the book of Proverbs. But let's notice Proverbs 22, verses 24 and 25.

24 and 25.

It says, Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go. Lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul. So here it tells us a number of things. If you are friends with an angry man, if you go with one who tends to fly off the handle, there is a danger that you might learn his ways. In an earlier life, as a young man, before marriage, with a group of guys wanting to go out, at high school and then even at college, there were certain ones that I knew, No, if he's going, I don't want to be around there, because we're likely going to have to run or we're going to have to fight our way out of a place, because he's going to get hot under the collar and he's going to get something to drink and he's going to run off his mouth.

But lest you learn his ways. I think that's where, again, the example that I read, the Amish children not yelling, not reacting in anger on a schoolyard, it goes back to the fact that as a people, they basically are passive and they don't learn that behavior. It can become a learned behavior.

Alright, Proverbs 14.

Here we have a contrast, 14 verse 17. We have a contrast between a couple of types of individuals who tend to get angry.

Proverbs 14 verse 17, a quick-tempered man acts foolishly. So this is the one who flies off the handle quickly.

There are different places in Proverbs where it talks about he who is of a hasty spirit. It makes me think of when I read of this quick-tempered man who acts foolishly. And a man of wicked intentions is hated. Now, a contrast here, because you've got two different types. You've got one who has a tendency to let anger get the control of him and he just blows up like the proverbial lid off the pressure cooker. Blows up, and maybe in a short order it's over. But you have the other one who has wicked intentions which speaks of plotting and planning and harboring resentment. So the short-tempered man works foolishness. The first man then has the quick-tempered, does things that are senseless, morally wrong, something he probably regrets later. But the second one is the one who...

His anger is not quite as visible. Under the scene, he's plotting, he's scheming, he's making his plans.

I've got a little paragraph. This is from a Biblical studies website, You and Your Temper. And it was discussing this very verse. And it says, here are two men. Both have a problem with anger and revenge. Just as, first of all, the short-tempered man works foolishness by an anger that is quick and uncalculated, so the man of craftiness, the man of wicked intentions, although he displays his anger more subtly, is just as vengeful and contemptible. You see, anger may show itself by an uncontrolled spirit, which is quick to explode, or it may show itself in cunning and deliberate methods of retaliation, but both here are reprehensible and are condemned by the Scripture, because neither is in control. Both are to be avoided. I like to take a little time. You know, a lot of times we have to go through and think through when we're dealing with our own personal sins, and we are examining ourselves. We have to go back and think through, what are the roots? If you are one who tends to have a problem with anger, and that would include all of us, I suppose, to differing degrees, but we need to go back and look at what is the root cause. There are some basic causal factors I want to cover just quickly here. One is an unwillingness to forgive.

An unwillingness to forgive. Now, we have a parable that we're very familiar with, the parable of the two sons, or maybe we know it better as the parable of the prodigal son, but we do recall that in that story there were two sons. We focused on the younger one more so. He appealed to his father, got his inheritance, and he went and he squandered it, with profligate living, and that's where the prodigal son comes in. He blew it all. He hit rock bottom. He was desiring to eat some of the pods he was feeding to the pigs, and he said, I'm going to go back to my father. In the story, the father is there. It's as though every day his eyes are looking at the horizon to see if his son's coming back, and one day he did. His father gave the order, he'll throw the feast and invite everyone, but there's this other brother. When he hears the merriment, he calls one of the servants and finds out what's going on. It says he was very angry. We don't know the rest of the story, but we're just kind of left hanging there. The father talked to him as far as my son, who was lost, is back. We should all be rejoicing, but we don't know what the end of the story was. But it was just that it was a story. But it's instructive for us. The older son was unwilling to let go and forgive, and it made him very angry.

A second area, is that a pride, which we're tying with our first message. We saw some wonderful examples there in Chronicles. Another one I think of is King Saul. King Saul, when God sent Samuel to go anoint him, he was out looking for some lost livestock. He was hidden shoulders taller than anybody else. Big man. But he didn't want the job. He wasn't asking for the job. And he was anointed. He became king. And we don't have that many chapters of good times under Saul. It doesn't take long to hit some of the ruts of the road. And we find he was a man of great passion, a man of great anger. I mean, if he grabs a javelin and tries to thrust it through David, that's a man who's given to angry outbursts.

But later on, after Samuel didn't come at a time they expected him, and Saul went ahead, I mean, he was of the tribe of Benjamin. He had no right. There was no reason for him to be officiating at the sacrificing. That was for the Levites, specifically the priesthood. And when Samuel came along, after that had happened, he told him, When you were little in your own eyes, God made you king.

But now, you're disqualified. Your son won't reign in your stead. Your line is done. And it was, in large part, anger. He thought too highly of himself. We have a couple of little vignettes into the life of Moses. He certainly was a man who had that fiery side to him. God said, Speak to the rock, and he got mad.

He called the people a bunch of rebels, and he struck the rock. Well, he was able to be salvaged, but he was not allowed to go into the Promised Land because of that. But thinking too highly of oneself, Number three is seeking recognition.

Seeking recognition. We mentioned, just in passing there, the disciples bickering over who's going to be at your right and your left hand. Who's going to be greatest in the kingdom. They didn't have God's Spirit at that time, but there was something within them where they wanted recognition. Jeremiah had that scribe Baruch in one chapter. I think it was chapter 45.

He just stopped, and he says, Are you seeking great things for yourself? Seek them not, because it opens the door for Satan to get in there and work. Number four is presumptuousness. Presumptuousness. Miriam and Aaron gave in to the cries of the children of Israel while Moses was up on Mount Sinai. They hadn't heard from him for weeks. They presumed the right to gather the gold. We all love Aaron's explanation of Moses later. I threw it into the fire, and out came his golden calf. Human nature likes to cover up for itself, doesn't it? It likes to justify. But they presumed a responsibility that wasn't theirs. Unbridled ambition, which kind of ties in with the one on pride, but Simon Magus.

Remember when Philip was down in Samaria, baptizing, and then Peter and John came later, and he saw that by the laying on of their hands, the Spirit of God came upon those individuals, and he made no attempt to cover up. He wanted to buy that power, and he wanted to buy it now. He had an incredible ambition, and Peter told him that he and his money can get out of there.

Unbridled ambition, and I would add another one. What is this? Number six. Six of them should be. An unwillingness to suffer wrong. An unwillingness to suffer wrong. Life's not fair. There are times when we are treated in such a way that the better part of wisdom is, don't pick every battle. Just let it go. Paul addressed that with a church at Corinth, where they were even. Brother was going to brother in courts of law, going to the local magistrate, with issues that they should have been able to sit down as brethren, or sit down with the ministry, and come to some solution.

But in 1 Corinthians 6, I believe it's verse 7, he said, Why didn't you just suffer the wrong? Why didn't you let yourself be defrauded? But no, they got so angry. There had to be anger there to go and get... You know, we would say today the phrase would be, Law, you're up and take your brother or sister to court in the law.

Rather, in the court. Okay, those are some of the causal factors, and I don't intend that to be an exclusive or exhaustive list either. But the fact is, we're going to have to battle anger. And the Scripture tells us to struggle to bring every thought into the obedience of Christ. But there will be days when we are furious, and we have to deal with anger. There are times when we may be angry, and the next day, the next month, or five years later.

Sometimes within our families, I think we all know it can be that something happened decades ago, and one wing of the family got mad at the other wing of the family, and it takes on... It's like it takes on an eternal life of its own. It never goes away.

To battle anger, five points. Number one, admit your anger. Now, when I say this, I mean your inappropriate anger, I should say.

Yeah, shootings at a church or a school ought to make us furious, and we take it to God, and we deal with it, and we leave it there. But if we harbor it, if it continues to be a festering sore, somewhere along the line, we have to just honestly admit to God, I'm sinning. Any twelve-step program is going to tell you. The first step we have to take is you have to admit you're wrong, and that's the most difficult thing for any of us to do. 1 John 1. 1 John 1, verses 9 and 10.

1 John 1, verse 9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. But the first step is admit your inappropriate anger to God. We can't deny it and hope it will go away. We admit it's there. It's either without cause, or it's not under control.

2. Seek to identify the source, the cause. Where did it come from? What is the root causal factor?

Too often we take our anger and then we project it elsewhere.

But there is a cause. Some of the things that we covered just a little while ago, we might consider before God, am I unwilling to forgive? Do I have improper ambition? And that made me angry when someone was elevated instead of me. Identify the source as number 2. Number 3. Seek to understand why you became angry.

And it's kind of somewhat overlapped with the second point.

Are you unwilling to forgive? Well, to forgive is to set a debt free. If you set a debt free with a brother or sister, then it should not be an issue the next day or the next month or the next week when you see them at church. It should be left there at the throne of God.

I think there's a lot of wisdom and there's a little story told back during David's life, a time when David was running from his own son. And David had his men and they were traveling a certain area and here came... Oh, what was the guy? Shimei. Shimei came out. Kicking dirt and cursing David. And one of David's mighty men said, Why is this dead dog living? Let me go over and take off his head. Something about the Middle East. They want to take off people's heads. But David said in so many words, he said, Leave him alone. I'm running from my own son. I'm not going to make an issue out of this man. Of course, on his deathbed, he told Solomon, Don't let him go to the grave as an old man. But there are a lot of battles we should not pick. So why are we angry?

Do we have pride? Do we have ambition? Do we have ambition?

Is your anger centered on the other person?

You know, David, when he was a lad, early on when we were introduced to him, he takes supplies on behalf of his father to his brothers, the oldest three who were in Saul's army, the Valley of Elah. And he hears the taunting rants of Goliath. And he was angry. He had to be angry. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine to defy the armies of a living God?

But again, it was righteous because the words were against God, His God, and His army. Christ was righteously indignant over the desecration of His Father's house.

Okay, why are you angry? Number four, repent, which again simply means change.

Sin has to be admitted to God. We have to then, with God's help, make changes. Wherever the roots lie, we go, we find them, and we ask God's help to change. There is nothing easy about it. If you are one who is of a personality type, or maybe you learned that behavior growing up, or you fly off the handle easily, there's nothing easy about changing that. But it is something God holds out for us. We repent. Number five, forgive. Because a lot of times the things that make us angry are words or deeds of other people. And we need to forgive others. And there was the parable of the unforgiving servant, and Jesus said, So my heavenly Father will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. And there in the sermon on the Mount, He tied those together. If we forgive men their trespasses, God will forgive ours. And He calls us to forgive. And then, was that number five? Okay, that was the last one. Good. Alright, so let's go to Proverbs 16.

I want to wrap it up over here. Proverbs 16. And nearly to the end of the chapter we have verse 32. Proverbs 16 verse 32. Notice it says, One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is self-control. And, you know, in one sense, He's saying, A person who can learn self-control is greater than, you know, the great armies who have besieged cities, empires, Cyrus, and the armies of the Medes and the Persians that besieged and finally overthrew the city of Nineveh, excuse me, the city of Babylon and the Babylonian Empire. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Abraham Lincoln is a marvelous study. More than one occasion in Lincoln's life when he was angry, he would write a letter. Battle of Gettysburg, most conclude that was the turning point of whatever you call it, the Civil War. I didn't grow up in one of the southern states, so I grew up in Oklahoma where it wasn't even a state until decades, many decades afterward. But I know some call it the War of the Rebellion, the War of Northern Aggression, the uncivilized war, or the uncivil war. But different times, Battle of Gettysburg was very much a turning point. That first week of July 1863, Vicksburg took place at the same time. General Meade, with the Union forces, did not pursue generally in his forces.

Lincoln wrote a letter, but then he would burn it. Later in the war, Secretary of War, as it was called then, Secretary of War Stanton, came and he was just furious about something. Lincoln said, write a letter. Let me read it. Stanton came back with a letter. Lincoln looked at it, and he said, now burn it. You wrote that letter when you were angry, burn it. Write another letter. Lincoln did that many times. And I think, again, that's a lot of times. Give it a little time. Back up. Try to step back and look at it objectively. There are things that are said and done to us that may cause us to flame into anger. And if we just step back a little, we realize that's not a battle to pick. And we can go to God and ask forgiveness, and we can ask that He help us to forgive, and we can ask that He gives us the strength to conduct our lives in a way that will be pleasing to Him. And it will be perfectly in control of this emotion called anger.