From Solid Ground
daily devotionals by Mark Finley
He
who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit
than he who takes a city. Prov. 16:32
We get control of our
anger by giving it up to God. An inner-city kid named Ben can teach us how.
Ben grew up in a Detroit
ghetto, a place where anger flows freely in the streets, where getting even
with anyone who disrespects you is a way of life.
By the time Ben reached
high school, he had developed quite a temper. As he listened to the radio one
afternoon his buddy yelled, “You call that music?” and flipped the dial to
another station. Ben shot back, “It’s better than what you like!” and grabbed the
dial.
His buddy resisted, and
is that instant a blind anger took hold of Ben. He grabbed the camping knife
that he carried in his back pocket, snapped it open, and lunged at his friend’s
belly. The blade hit his friend’s ROTC belt buckle with such force that it
snapped and dropped to the ground.
Ben stared down at the
broken blade, and his knees just about gave way. He had almost killed someone.
He’d almost killed a good friend.
Over what?
This incident forced
Ben to face his anger head-on. He had to do something about it. He could not
handle his temper alone. Ben prayed, “Lord, You have to take this temper from
me. If You don’t, I’ll never be free from it. You can change me.”
Back home, Ben locked
himself in a bathroom and began reading the book of Proverbs. He read many
texts that spoke pointedly about uncontrolled anger and where it leads. The
words seemed written just for him. This verse impressed him the most: “He who
is slow to anger is better that the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he
who takes a city” (Prov. 16:32).
“The discretion of a
man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression”
(Prov. 19:11). We become angry when we magnify the errors of others. We become
obsessed with what another has done to us. Their actions control us.
This is what happened
to Ben. He knew he had to deal with it. Proverbs provided the key. He agreed
with the wise man that “wrath is cruel and anger a torrent” (Prov. 27:4), and
“he who is slow to anger allays contention” (Prov. 15:18).
These words gave Ben
hope, something to aim at. He made a commitment to read the Scriptures each day
and gave himself and his problem wholeheartedly to God. A sense of peace
replaced Ben’s anguish and panic. As he walked out of that room he felt God had
changed him.
God dealt decisively
with this young man’s uncontrolled anger. The hands that had once lunged with a
knife became the disciplined, skilled hands of a surgeon. Ben Carson became one
of America’s respected pediatric neurosurgeons.
God can deal with your
anger too, but only if you give it to Him. Is there any anger in your heart?
Why not give it to God as you pray today.
