Psalm 4:4 – “Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still.”
We all experience things in our lives from time to time that light a fire within us. When that happens and it creates anger in us the Bible has great advice for us on how we should respond.
First, don’t let it get the best of you. The fact that the beginning of verse 4 tells us to be angry but not to sin lets us know that anger is getting pretty close to crossing the line. But you can’t let it control and dominate you. How do you do that?
Second, meditate…that means think within yourself. In other words, keep your mouth shut. Don’t let it boil over into unproductive explosions of words that come out of your mouth.
Third, sleep on it. Going to bed at night having accomplished the two objectives above will allow the fire to die down inside you and take the emotion out of the way so you can think clearly.
Fourth, be still. Don’t do anything rash. Let some time go by to bring calm inside of you so that you can make a quality decision about whatever brought the anger on in the first place.
Follow this recipe and you and those around you will be better off.