THE ANGER CHAIN
by Wynn Cameron Thompson
This is a suggested list of what happens after we are wounded or hurt.
My suggestion is to read through this document and see where you are. It’s also important to read the scriptures, then ask God to show you His Truth. I’ve found in my own life that when He exposed the lies with His Truth my whole world changed!
Our feelings sometimes lie to us, yet they are strong and are indicators of the depth of where we actually are at one given time.
Another suggestion is to print this out so as you read through it you are able to jot down your own personal notes in regards to (1) how you are feeling; (2) what caused those feelings; (3) and how might need to overcome the destructive emotions you struggle with. Talk to someone who you know has wisdom and that you feel safe with and pray with them.
It’s very important to our emotional, physical and spiritual health to break this chain in us. How far have you come in this chain? Start with the worst and imagine planting the Cross at every level, as you work backwards through this list, and see Christ’s redemption work. Needless to say the worst is murder / character assassination. Yet all of these become disastrous to our well being.
Wound –
hurt, damage, break, mar, injury, to cause somebody emotional or psychological distress by saying or doing something • cutting remarks intended to wound.
Jeremiah 15:18-21 – Amplified Bible
18 Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you indeed be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail and are uncertain?
19 Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God's faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece. [But do not yield to them.] Let them return to you--not you to [the people].
20 And I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, says the Lord.
21 And I will deliver you out of the hands of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the palms of the terrible and ruthless tyrants.
Offense –
wrong (evil) doing, fault, transgression, sin, indiscretion, recklessness,
thoughtlessness, lack of consideration, rudeness, selfishness, etc. etc.
Luke 17:3-4 – Amplified Bible
3 Pay attention and always be on your guard [looking out for one another]. If your brother sins (misses the mark), solemnly tell him so and reprove him, and if he repents (feels sorry for having sinned), forgive him.
4 And even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and turns to you seven times and says, I repent [I am sorry], you must forgive him (give up resentment and consider the offense as recalled and annulled).
Resentment –
aggrieved feelings (wounded & hurt) caused by a sense of having been badly
treated. Or the perception of it.
Ephesians 4:31-32 – Amplified Bible
31 Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and (anger, animosity) and quarrelling (brawling, clamour, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).
32 And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tender-hearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.
Bitterness –
angry and resentful; mentally painful, or very hard to accept; expressing intense
hostility; penetratingly and unpleasantly cold
Ephesians 4:31-32
31 Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarrelling (brawling, clamour, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous lan6yguage) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).
32 And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tender-hearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.
Anger –
a strong feeling of grievance and displeasure; injustice; accusation/criticism;
disapproval; condemnation; blame.
James 1:19-20 – Amplified Bible
19 Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry.
20 For man's anger does not promote the righteousness God [wishes and requires].
Rebellion –
the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention, an instance of such defiance or resistance.
2 Timothy 23:1-5 – Amplified Bible
3 But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear]. 2 For people will be lovers of self
[narcissistic, self-focused]
, lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, 3 [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control
[intemperate, immoral]
, brutal, haters of good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them.
1 Samuel 15:23
For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.
Hate –
to dislike somebody or something intensely, often in a way that evokes feelings of anger, hostility, or animosity, enmity.
Galations 5:20-21 – Amplified Bible
20 Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions (dissensions), party spirit (factions, sects with peculiar opinions, heresies),
21 Envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you beforehand, just as I did previously, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Rage –
sudden and extreme anger; an outburst of strong anger; extreme or unrelenting intensity (remorseless, merciless, insistent, pounding; a strong and sometimes overpowering (strong) desire, consuming, uncontrollable, wild, disobedient.
Colossians 3:5-10 – Amplified Bible
5 So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God).
6 It is on account of these [very sins] that the [holy] anger of God is ever coming upon the sons of disobedience (those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will),
7 Among whom you also once walked, when you were living in and addicted to [such practices].
8 But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips!
9 Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old (unregenerate) self with its evil practices,
10 And have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process of being] renewed and remoulded into [fuller and more perfect knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him Who created it. [Gen. 1:26.]
Murder (character assassination) –
to punish or be very angry with somebody; to put an end to or destroy something; to defeat a person completely; to kill another person deliberately and not in self-defence or with any other extenuating circumstance.
Matthew 15:18-19 – Amplified Bible
18 But whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what makes a man unclean and defiles [him].
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts (reasonings and disputing and designs) such as murder, adultery, sexual vice, theft, false witnessing, slander, and irreverent speech.
gossip (character assassination) –
conversation about the personal details of other people's lives, whether rumour or fact, especially when malicious; somebody who habitually discusses the personal details of others' lives.