Our anger often protects us
Anger is often a protective emotion, which provides the function of protecting a more vulnerable emotion (often a fear). When our anger serves a purpose, we need to find out what that anger is doing for us, and get that belief resolved. This is the reason many of our attempts to “give Jesus the anger” doesn’t work and usually comes back to haunt us later. We’re not getting to the root and dealing with the real reason that we’re angry in the first place.
What does this look like in real life? Perhaps you were abused when you were a child, and you constructed a wall around your heart (built on anger) which your heart believes is protecting you from being hurt again. Behind your anger, there is a fear of being hurt again, and by keeping your anger in place, your heart believes that it is somehow safe. This is a faulty belief that must be addressed in order to truly be released from the anger. As long as anger is doing something for you, you will find it hard to ‘just let it go’.
“What a friend we have in Jesus” is one of my favorite old-time songs that we can apply today. When we find out that we have an anger issue that is “keeping us from being hurt again”, we need to lift that heart-belief up to Jesus and ask Him, “Jesus, is my anger keeping me from being hurt again?” Your mind may know it’s not true, but your heart-belief (which is what you “feel”) is what needs to be addressed here.
When you resolve anger by dealing with the reason that the anger is there, you will experience effortless freedom in that area. It is a million times more effective than just giving your anger to Jesus. If you can just give it to Jesus, go for it! But if you find your heart resistant, then dig deeper and find out what that anger is doing for you!
I just wrote a teaching called Holy Spirit Counseling that goes deep into emotional healing, and getting to the root of your emotional pain. I HIGHLY recommend you read it, because it will change your life just as it did mine!
Blessings in Christ,
Robert