By Staff Writer, Matt Osborne

The Minnesota Timberwolves were trying to perform a delicate balancing act during their final game of the regular season.

On one hand, a win in the season finale had the potential to help their seeding for the playoffs, giving the team incentive to play their best players and have maximum effort to win.

But perhaps more importantly, the Timberwolves wanted to ensure they wouldn’t do anything in that final game to jeopardize their ability to be at full strength when the playoffs started.

If you saw the highlights of Minnesota’s final regular season game, you already know that the team failed horribly at the latter of its goals.

After picking up his second foul in the first quarter of action, starting forward Jaden McDaniels punched a wall in frustration, breaking his hand and knocking him out of the playoffs.

Having just lost a key starter for their playoff run, the Timberwolves would be stung by more anger problems just minutes later. During a timeout in the action, center Rudy Gobert and forward Kyle Anderson began arguing with each other on the bench.

After a heated verbal exchange, Gobert reached out and punched his teammate in the chest, causing the team to immediately send him home from the contest and suspend him for the team’s play-in game.

Given that Minnesota ultimately lost its first play-in game in overtime to the Lakers without Gobert and McDaniels on the court, it’s hard not to say that anger issues significantly cost the team.

But what about in our lives as followers of Jesus? How often do we allow anger to get the best of us, leading us to pain and difficulty, and sinning against God in the process?

As humans who still live in our flesh, all of us are likely to experience some level of anger as we deal with other people. The challenge for us, however, is to learn how to deal with anger so it doesn’t lead to greater sin.

The Bible makes it clear that anger coming from our flesh isn’t pleasing to God. Check out the following verses about anger:

“Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil” (Psalm 37:8; ESV).

“Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9; ESV).

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20; ESV).

But if all of us are prone to get angry at times, how can we avoid acting out of anger and dishonoring God?

We must first recognize that we’re angry and then take steps to address it.

Ephesians 4:26 (NLT) says, “And ‘don’t sin by letting anger control you.’ Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry.”

In dealing with our anger, we must not delay, as it tends to only increase our level of frustration the longer we let it linger.

We can begin by tactfully removing ourselves from the situations that cause anger, and should also spend time in prayer, asking God to help us and reveal the root cause of our anger.

Lastly, we must address whether our anger is brought on by our own issues, such as needing to get our own way, not trusting in God’s providence, or refusing to extend grace to those who have wronged us.

As the situation with Gobert and Anderson highlights, it’s also important that we help diffuse tense situations by not exasperating the problem.

Proverbs 15:1 (NIV) says, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

God’s grace is sufficient to cover every sinful moment of anger we, as followers of Jesus, have. But, at the same time, we need to recognize that God’s grace has fully equipped us not to be people who are prone to anger.

So today, let’s emulate our gracious God who describes Himself as “slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6). Let’s put off the anger of our flesh and seek to be people who bring peace in tumultuous circumstances.

I’m Matt Osborne and you can UNPACK that!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, please forgive me for the times that I have let my anger lead me into sin. Thank you for being slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. Please help me be slow to anger and handle difficult situations in a way that honors You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.