No matter how just your words may be, you ruin everything when you speak with anger. – John Chrysostom

No judging! I loved Taylor Swift’s early songs. Maybe I’m a recovering “Swiftie.” Her songs were so sweet and romantic when she burst on the scene in 2006. She sang about the ecstasies of young love and the heartbreak of it all. For some reason her mood has hardened as her star has risen. One of her newer albums, Midnights, plays upon a string of negative emotions—anxiety, restlessness, exhaustion, and occasionally anger.

What’s worse, she’s part of a larger trend. Researchers analyzed more than 150,000 pop songs released over five decades. During that time the appearance of the word “love” in top 100 hits roughly halved while the number of times songs containing negative emotion words, like “hate,” rose sharply. Yet, pop music isn’t the only thing that’s gotten a lot harsher.

Other researchers analyzed 23 million headlines published between 2000 and 2019 in the United States. The headlines, too, grew significantly more negative, with a greater proportion of headlines denoting anger, fear, disgust, and sadness. 

If anger levels keep rising, what can we expect in the future? According to the Global Peace Index, civic discontent—riots, strikes, anti-government demonstrations—increased by 244% from 2011 to 2019. The emotional health of the world is shattering.

Have you ever noticed riots often happen in the summer? The Newark riots happened on this day on July 12^th in 1967. Sociologists have observed that civil disturbances tend to increase during hotter months. Longer daylight hours and heat bring more people outside, which can amplify tension and collective grievances. Research into crowd behavior suggests that sustained heat increases anger and decreases impulse control. 

Today it seems like nearly everyone is angry about something. Shouldn’t Christ-followers be different? I wish I could say my sinful anger has been totally sanctified and know that I’m a work in progress of God’s grace. 

Many of us grew up in angry homes. Rather than acting more like our Heavenly Father, we learned rage from our earthly father or mother. If you don’t believe women struggle as much with anger as men, read the accounts of Queen Jezebel who wanted to nail Elijah to the side of the castle wall and Herodias who wasn’t satisfied until John the Baptist was beheaded. Out of control anger is a genderless evil.

Yet, I saw something in the Bible recently that I found amazing! It came out in a Bible study that I’m part of with a few of our men. In God’s Word there are very few angry godly individuals in the Bible. To be sure, there is a time for what the Bible labels “righteous anger” (Ephesians 4:26-27). Righteous anger is directed toward injustice, sin, or violations of God’s will. Unlike selfish, uncontrolled rage, it’s motivated by love for God and others, and seeks restoration rather than destruction. 

Angry people are not living like Christ-followers. 

It’s very rare to find someone living for Jesus who has a short fuse. No matter what our age or gender, nearly all of us periodically struggle with sinful anger. It’s easy to see why many experts have labeled this, “the age of rage.” 

There are some things that exacerbate it. Substance abusers often struggle with rage. Many were programmed during their formative years that anger was an appropriate response in our homes. It’s the same reason alcoholics raise future alcoholics. We subconsciously learn destructive habits. 

It’s why the Bible warns us to be careful with anger. Satan is enraged. He uses anger as footholds to climb in our lives and wreak havoc. 

Ultimately, anger is a choice. We all need God’s grace and the power of the Spirit to keep it under control and replace it with godly responses. So, what choices can we make in order to deal with sinful anger?

Habitually spend time in God’s Word and with other believers. 

God’s Word is an attitude adjuster.  Some of the most peaceful people and lovers of peace are Christ-followers. Believers are commanded to embody peace, to follow the teachings of Jesus who is the “Prince of Peace.” Core biblical directives, like the Beatitudes, command us to be peacemakers.

Submit to God’s sovereignty. 

A powerful alternative to anger is heartfelt surrender to our Sovereign God. If we believe God is truly sovereign, there’s not a whole lot that we have to get angry about. Trusting that God is in control of everything changes our outlook. It frees us from trying to control people or situations through harmful anger. 

Glory in God’s goodness. 

Anger is focused on our disappointment, feelings of injustice, and longing for retaliation. These can be countered by a deep understanding and affirmation of the goodness of God in all things. 

After a lifetime of repeated injustice, Joseph was able to say to his brothers who’d sold him into slavery, As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good (Genesis 50:20). After losing family, home, and health, Job rested in God’s goodness. When we know the Lord is our Shepherd, watching over and caring for us, we can say, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life (Psalm 23:6). 

Live in Jesus’ forgiveness. 

All of us know how sinful we are. We must look to a God who is merciful with us and forgives our heinous and repeated sins against Him. He commands us to forgive one another, even as God in Christ forgave you (Ephesians 4:32). 

Forgiveness doesn’t make the other person right; it does free us. When we release a person from our judgment through God’s grace and forgiveness, we can be free from destructive emotions that eat away at us.

Live in victory through trust. 

Maybe the most difficult choice is to trust God. Even when we worship God in His sovereignty and forgive those who hurt us, we must still trust God on a daily basis with our scars and pain. Anger is our way of taking things back into our own hands, rather than leaving them in the hands of God.Trust can flourish as a gift of grace. Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Joy overcomes anger as we learn to trust our Heavenly Father.

Habitually practice gratitude. 

Practicing gratitude shifts our focus from stressors to God’s faithfulness. It’s not about ignoring pain. It’s focusing on God’s grace in the middle of it. Maybe start simple by identifying small, daily blessings, thanking God for them, and even writing them down.

In a world burning up with anger, let’s live as citizens of another world! “Blessed are the peacemakers!” That’s what God has called us to!