by guest author S.M. Davis

My wife and I were visiting a church in Georgia. A father with a rebellious 17-year-old daughter and a rebellious 15-year-old son asked to take us to the airport so he could talk to us along the way. During our ride, the man described the problems with his children, how he had tried to deal with them, and that nothing seemed to be working. I asked him, “Do you have a problem with anger?”

“Yes,” he replied. “I trace it back to some guilt from some earlier unresolved conflicts. Then I went back and dealt with those things.”

I replied, “That’s wonderful. So, do you still have a problem with anger?”

He responded, “Occasionally, but not very often.”

Probing further, I questioned, “What do you do when you get angry?”

His response was, “Well, I’ve made myself accountable to my wife and my children. Any time I get angry I give the children $20 and I give my wife $50.”

I asked, “So how much have you paid out in the last few months?”

He replied, “Well, I’d say I’ve paid $150 to $200 to each of the children and probably $500 to $600 to my wife.”

I looked at him and said, “Part of your problem is that you’re not taking your anger seriously enough.” I read to him Gal. 5:19–20 (KJV). Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath …”

Then I said, “There are some things in life you must get victory over because you know, you just can’t keep doing them. The consequences are far too great. There are some things you just don’t do at your house:

1. You don’t bring X-rated movies into your house and watch them as a family.
2. You don’t bring an idol into your living room and bow down before it.
3. You don’t have a witch come into your house and hold a seance.
4. And you don’t get angry in your house.”

Dads, what I said to him also applies to you. Notice in these following passages of Scripture which states that anger and wrath are to be avoided, that they are in the same classification as blasphemy and filthy language, and it declares that the wrath of man is always wrong (unrighteous).

• Ephesians 4:31, Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger … be put away from you.
• Colossians 3:8, But now ye also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication.
• James 1:20, For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Begin with these steps to conquer and angry spirit:

1. Recognize the problem and its seriousness.
2. Desire victory enough to cry out to God.
3. Repent of the sin.
4. Confess the sins of forefathers and ask God in the Name and through the power of the blood of Jesus to break any curse coming down the generations.
5. Ask God to take back the ground Satan has taken because of anger.
6. See the connection between anger and lust in Matthew 5:21–32.
7. Watch out for people and things that are going to come your way to make you angry.
8. Purpose to enter the presence of family members and business associates with praise.
9. Ask God daily to fill you with His Spirit and to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life.
10. Make yourself fully accountable.

Article originally published in the Homeschool Update Magazine, Vol. 2, 2019.

About the Author: Dr. S.M. Davis

Dr. S.M. Davis has been married to Rae Jean since 1969, and God has blessed them with 4 daughters and 14 grandchildren. He is the founder and director of Solve Family Problems, a DVD ministry that gives biblical solutions to help families foresee, avoid, and/or solve critical problems. After serving for 36 years as the pastor of Park Meadows Baptist Church in Lincoln, Illinois, Dr. Davis became a full-time conference speaker in 2012. Check out his website at www.solvefamilyproblems.org.