Overcoming Your Anger: Genesis 4:6-7

Genesis 4
Cain and Abel

⁶ Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Many of us are walking around angry. Bitter because of how something turned out in our lives. Bitter towards those who have embarrassed us, been mean to us etc... And all of this bitterness and anger can be traced back to hurt. 

We have been talking about wounds and hurt a lot at my church recently, and it wasn't until I went deeper to investigate hurt that I realized where our anger stems from and how sin follows suit. One of our very first warnings of anger comes in Genesis with Cain and Abel.

Cain is always described as the first murderer in the bible and that's it, but in reality Cain was just another hurt person. Cain never felt like he was "good enough." And then his brother Abel seemed to be perfect. So here he was hurt and then he became angry. Angry because he was hurting and at the time Abel seemed to be the root of his hurt. So he allowed his anger to rule over him to the point that he killed his own brother.

Many of us have done the same thing. Maybe not physically killing someone, but we have allowed our hurt and anger to consume us to a point where we verbally murder someone, or with our thoughts we murder someone, and even physically aim to hurt someone badly.

I personally realized how I allowed my hurt to turn into bitterness and anger. If you get me talking about certain subjects and people there is so much hatred the becomes present in my voice, but it's all rooted in hurt. Hurt because what people perceive as the truth really isn't. Hurt because the people who are full of so much venom and hurt me are praised and glamorized. Hurt because of the lies told on me. Hurt because no one ever apologized for hurting me, while I apologized for hurting them.

When we are hurt we allow anger to bloom in our hearts, and that's why God warns us to caution ourselves against letting anger linger because wherever anger is present, a sinful deed or nature is near waiting to take over. Think back to your anger and discover whether the root is really just a wound that has become infected with bitterness.

We cannot allow our anger to turn into venom that we spit into others lives. Like the saying says, "Hurt people, HURT PEOPLE." The only way to conquer sin is to overcome our anger. Even if people are out to get you or hurt you, do not allow anger to take over, turn it over to God.

Allowing anger to stay and grow in your heart never helps. It dominates your actions, makes you physically sick from stress and embraces a sinful nature. While it may not be fair, it's better for you to forgive and love than to be angry and hateful.

Even to this day, I am still turning over my own anger to God, but I find myself not investing energy into things that made me upset to start with. I find myself having less headaches already and focusing more. All because I am choosing to overcome my anger, and I have a past of anger management issues.

Maya Angelou says it best,

 "The problem I have with haters is, they see my glory but they don't know my story."

And while we may deny it, we have all been a hater at least once in our lives because haters are simply hurt people. People that see what you have, and somewhere in their lives maybe they've been hurt because they feel as though they should have a lifestyle that they don't. So I even push to encourage you to pray for those who appear as haters or enemies, because they are only wounded just like Cain and feel as though you are another Abel in their life.

Bottom line: Anger is not good, and it leads to sin. While we are human and bound to feel and experience anger, we are not bound to live in it. God doesn't want that for us and we shouldn't want that for ourselves. Overcome your anger, and forgive instead. Be Blessed!