8 Bible Verses About Anger to Help You Restore Relationships and Reclaim Peace

When we struggle with a recurring issue, as anger often is, it can feel debilitating, overwhelming, and hopeless. But Bible verses about anger are a source of encouragement to remind you that anger is not your destiny, and you are not alone.

8 Bible Verses About Anger

The Bible teaches that plenty of others have struggled with anger. Sometimes just hearing about another person’s common struggle is enough to make us feel empowered to overcome our anger issues.

Bible verses about anger should not be read in isolation from the rest of Scripture, though, so let’s dig take a look at faith heroes who struggled with anger and see how their stories intersect with the truth of God’s Word.

• Cain (Genesis 4:1-8): Cain’s jealousy fueled his anger against Abel, and it ended in his sinful act of murdering his brother.
• Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:12-23): Nebuchadnezzar’s anger was likely rooted in pride. When he discovered that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not worshiping his golden image, he exploded in anger and turned the heat of the fire up sevenfold before throwing these young men into it.
• Haman (Esther 3:1-6): Haman’s anger led him to take it out on more than just Mordecai for his refusal to bow down to Haman. Haman also had plans to take out his anger on all Jewish people.

There are myriad examples of both righteous and unrighteous anger in the Bible, but these three remind us that anger is often unjustified, rooted in sinful desires and that it multiplies our pain and the pain that others go through because of our angry responses.

Bible verses about anger can help anyone who is struggling to refocus, restore relationships, and reclaim their peace.

Refocus

Refocusing simply means reminding yourself that you are created in God’s image and that He is a trustworthy God.

“Sitting on the Grass”, Courtesy of Guilherme Stecanella,, Unsplash.com, CC0 License; Commit your way to the Lord; Trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, Over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. – Psalm 37:5-9

When Psalm 37:5 instructs us to commit ourselves to the Lord, it doesn’t do so blindly. This instruction is followed by the truth of who God is – one who can be trusted and one who can act. That’s the premise behind verses 7-8. The fact that God can be trusted allows His children to wait for Him and to refrain, or he-rep̄ in Hebrew, which means to cease.

How can we cease or stop anger? We can trust God that it only brings with it trouble. Similarly, we are reminded in Proverbs that a person who doesn’t control his or her anger makes careless mistakes. Proverbs 14:17 says, “A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated.”

Reminding ourselves that letting anger get out of hand leads us to make foolish, unwise choices is like a guardrail to protect us. Bible verses about anger don’t just refocus us on God and His promises; they also restore broken relationships – with ourselves and with others.

Restore Relationships

While a hasty decision or angry words can’t be undone, forgiveness is possible because of Christ’s redemptive grace. Remembering the lengths that Jesus took to secure our salvation, sacrificing Himself even to the point of death, restores our hearts to what we could not do on our own.

Without Jesus, we are helpless in our emotions, our reactions, our sinful choices, and our hasty words. But in Christ, we have forgiveness. Ephesians 1:7 declares that it is in Christ “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”

Your restoration doesn’t come from human works or apology; it comes because of Jesus. Not only are those who follow Christ restored to God the Father through Him, but Jesus’ death and resurrection make forgiveness and restoration possible among people too. What makes Proverbs 15:1 so interesting is that it’s a road map, a way forward, toward restoration with others. It says, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

The Lord has shown His people how to turn anger and rage away – by gentleness. On the contrary, harshness stirs up anger. He shows us how to be restored to each other in these thirteen words of truth. As we learn to apply them in real life, we can show each other the same gentleness that the Lord shows us.

Proverbs 15:18 continues that instruction: “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.” When you think of a contentious person, you might know someone very likely to stir up an argument or tends to get involved in heated disagreements. However, someone who turns away from wrath, as instructed in Prov. 15:1 is someone who quiets the quarrelsome person in the room.

Praying through these verses is a great way to memorize them and let them resonate deep inside your heart. Ultimately, this restoration of our hearts is what gives us peace that lasts.

Reclaim peace

Bible verses about anger aren’t magic. We can’t snap our fingers and make anger issues go away simply by reading the Bible. But we can reclaim our peace through the presence of Immanuel, God with us, as we learn and grow in our application of His Word.

The peace of Christ is that even when we mess up and are faithless, He can’t help but be faithful. Second Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.”

A little later in the same chapter, we read that believers are to run from the passionate anger that can accompany the young. Verse 22 tells us, “So flee youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart.” We are told to pursue the eternal things, not the earthly quarrels that we can easily get mixed up in. Verses 23-26 of 2 Timothy 2 elaborate:

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

What helps us recapture the faith we’ve been given alongside Christ’s love and peace? Avoiding foolish controversies and quarrels, choosing kindness and patience – even when it’s unmerited – and having a gentle attitude toward those who oppose us.

We reclaim our peace through living a lifestyle of putting aside our anger and treating others with the gentleness of Christ. Also, we never know what our pursuit of peace will do in someone else’s life. It can even bring the other person to repentance and restoration in Christ.

Bible verses about anger can draw the one who struggles with his temper into holy communion and friendship with Christ, with others, and ultimately, can lead others to the Lord. The counselors at Glendale Christian Counseling are Christians who understand how biblical truth impacts healing. Contact us to find a counselor who can walk you through what the Bible says about anger in a way that provides hope and healing.