Anger

Each Tuesday, we invite you to pray for our city or yourself in different ways. Each Tuesday, we invite you to fast for our city, to do without something you depend on so you can foster a dependency on Jesus. Our hope is to form a greater attachment to Jesus so that we can speak as he spoke when he said in John 5, “I only do what I see my Father doing.” How could Jesus say this? He spent intentional time in prayer and fasting.

Introduction:

Scripture is full of language about feelings. The writers of Scripture are very in touch with who they are and comfortable expressing their emotions to their audience or to God. Many of the Psalms are of David speaking to God about his feelings. He is so relationally secure that he is unafraid to tell God exactly how he feels. This is certainly true of Jesus.

Whether He is at the tomb of His close friend Lazarus, looking over Jerusalem weeping for the city, or on the cross crying out in fear that His Father has forsaken Him, Jesus understands and communicates His feelings. In a few of our prayer guides this year, we will explore some of our emotions. The more proficient we become in recognizing what we are feeling and speaking the truth about that to our Father, the more proficient we will be in attaching to Him and others.

In this prayer guide, we will consider the feeling of anger. It’s an important emotion, and admittedly, we can’t fully explore it in one guide. We’ll only look at it from one angle. To explore it further, see the resources listed at the end of this prayer guide.

Movement 1: Reframing Anger

Reflect:

Chip Dodd, author of Voice of the Heart, writes these words:

Anger shows our yearning and hunger for life...anger helps us pursue full life by exposing the substance, desires, and commitments...Authentic anger is a ‘caring’ feeling telling us that something matters...Anger exposes what we value and expresses our willingness to do what is required to reach that value.

Have you ever considered anger this way? Or has anger only been communicated as when someone is raging? The difference comes in the way most of us have understood anger. We’ve mostly seen it as angry “at” something rather than having anger “for” something. Anger was framed as a “bad” emotion rather than an emotion that was telling you how much something mattered to you or how much you wanted something to be different.

Respond:

Perhaps this understanding of anger is new to you. Stop here for a moment. Get out a notebook, journal, or open a new document and write or type out your reaction to this reframing. Is it difficult to see?

Movement 2: Being Angry Like Jesus

Read:

Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him. He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored!
-Mark 3:1-5

It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”
–John 2:13-17

Reflect:

In the first passage, Jesus is angry (and sad) that the religious leaders had completely lost the plot. They had missed the point. Rather than bringing healing and restoration, they were using the law to oppress. They had no compassion for the man.

We can feel the anger Jesus has in the second passage as he clears the temple. The religious leaders at this moment were using the Temple to make money. They were oppressing the poor and the foreigner as well through their schemes of exchanging money and requiring certain types of animals to be sold that could only be bought in that place. Notice the passage does not say he was angry. The disciples remember the prophecy that says, “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” When you read “passion for...” you can equate that to “anger for.”

Jesus has an anger for the blind to see. Jesus has an anger for the lame to walk. Jesus has an anger for sin and death to be conquered and the Kingdom to come on earth.

Phil Herndon and Jeff Schulte write in The Voice of the Heart Bible Study:

This is why we refer to the week of Easter as “Passion Week,” and drama that depict the story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are “passion plays.” Jesus was angry. He was willing to be in pain for something that mattered more than the pain (Hebrews 12:2). Passion is the gift of anger and the ultimate expression of love. Part of love is a willingness to suffer for something that matters more than pain.

Respond:

What are you angry for? What breaks your heart? What do you wake up in the night for, or ponder during the day, “As long as I have breath in my lungs, I will work to end _________?”

Sit in silence for a few moments and ask the Holy Spirit to highlight these things. Make a list in your journal. Perhaps they are relational things. You might write, “I have anger for the relationship with _______ to be restored.” What would you have to write next? It might be, “I will have to seek forgiveness without qualifications.” Perhaps they are much larger than yourself, some societal issue. You might write, “I have anger for reducing _________ because nothing about that looks like heaven breaking into the present.” What would you have to write next? It might be, “I will have to take a class on...” or “I will have to start volunteering again with...”

Begin to pray over each of these passions that the Holy Spirit highlights for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to stir up your anger. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring others into your life with whom you can share these passions. If you have a few friends you are journeying with in disciple-making, text them today about your prayer time with your anger.

*If you need more help developing an emotionally healthy community of 3 to 5 people, check out Hesed Discipleship Network

*This prayer guide is adapted from “The Voice of the Heart Bible Study” by Jeff Shulte and Phil Herndon (2019, Tin Man Ministries). To explore the emotion of anger further, this is a great resource, along with The Voice of the Heart by Chip Dodd.