Do you get angry? It seems all of us do at one time or another. Anger is the "Big Problem" that this little book sets out to explore. Anger does damage. At its worst, it leads to murder, destroys marriages and ends friendships. But these are just the external signs of what anger in our hearts does to us spiritually.

This book seeks to go deeper than just addressing the symptoms of the sin of anger. It's not just a list of do’s and don’ts. It seeks to peel back the layers of our hearts by giving us 50 short devotional readings that are designed to be read at a pace of one each day over the span of 50 days.

Each reading is just two to four pages long, asks important questions and points us to Scripture to examine our hearts and the source of our anger.

I have personally benefited from the book as have many others I know. While it can take as little as five minutes to read each day, the cumulative effect of reading about anger, and asking yourself questions about your own anger and what seems to bring it about, tends to bring about a better understanding of yourself and your sin – it brings you to repentance, and to the grace that is ours in the gospel of Christ.

While that task might seem intimidating, as you think more deeply about how to trust in Christ in the midst of your trials and your sin, you begin to see your loved ones, your co-workers and others as God sees them.

Read this short section from the first page to see if perhaps your heart needs to deal with anger:

“Look closely at any day and we can usually find anger in either actions or attitudes. Just track those pesky inconveniences – things spilled, things misplaced, traffic problems that seem devoted to making your life more difficult, and people, so many people, who are ill-mannered and unhelpful. After a little fuming, cursing or accusing most of these nuisances pass and we get on with what’s next. Some are more worthy adversaries and disrupt the rest of the day or the rest of our life. Either way, anger is so common, almost ordinary. Yet ordinary does not mean innocent. In its commonness, we can overlook our anger's volatile and destructive disposition. Everyone has both been destroyed by someone's anger and done some destroying. We are sitting on a bomb and, when it goes off, bad things happen.”

Think that sounds a little extreme? What did our Lord Jesus have to say about anger in Matthew 5:21-22?

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

The great majority of us have never murdered anyone, but Jesus won't let us be so comfortable in our self-righteous, so he asks a different but related question, "Have you ever been angry?" You see Jesus is linking murder and anger together at the level of our hearts, where they spring from the same selfish desire. We want something, and we don't get it, and we get angry.

I highly recommend this book. It will help you grow spiritually in an area of life that we find hard to confront. Spiritual growth in Christ awaits those who delve deep into their hearts, and their family and friends will benefit from the maturity in Christ that the Holy Spirit can bring through such striving for the fruit of the gospel in our lives.