Garwood Presbyterian Church

Anger and Letting Go and Letting God

God's Way to Health, Healing, and Wholeness

1. Staying Angry Harms Our Body and Can Give Us Cancer
   1. This is because anger causes cell wall rigidity
      1. Instead, our cells should be permeable, allowing oxygen and nutrients in and wastes and toxins to go out.
      2. Anger causes toxins to build up in the cell and can destroy 1 or 2 of the anti-oncogenes in the cell.
      3. When there are 2 anti-oncogenes in a cell, it can not become cancerous.
         1. When there is 1, the cell is compromised and susceptible to becoming cancerous.
         2. When there are none, the cell is vulnerable to becoming cancerous at any time.
   2. Then we can get cancer from one of many physical causes:
      1. A genetic defect
      2. A virus
      3. Radiation
      4. PCB's, smoking, or any carcinogen that gets into our body.
      5. About 70% of the time cancer comes from one of these physical causes. The other 30% of the time it comes directly from an emotional cause because of a spiritual root.
   3. Anger also attacks our immune system.
      1. It causes higher levels of the hormone cortisol to be released from the adrenal gland.
      2. Higher levels of cortisol destroys Interluken 2, white corpuscles, natural killer cells, and T-cells of our immune system. Cortisol also shuts down the proper functioning of the Interluken 2 that is left, and impairs the production of more of it in our bone marrow.
         1. Interluken 2 identifies any cancerous cells in our body so that our white corpuscles, natural killer cells, and especially our T-cells can attack and kill them.
         2. With Interluken 2 destroyed, shut down, and impaired by cortisol because of our anger, cancer-ous cells can go undetected and can multiply into a tumor. Our white cells, natural killer cells, and T-cells are also impaired from functioning properly.
      3. The American Medical Association says that the average person has a cell become cancerous in their body 200 times in their lifetime.
      4. The longer we stay angry, the longer our immune system is impaired and we can get cancer from one of these cancerous cells.
      5. Pleasant Valley Church in Georgia and Pastor Henry Wright teaches that anger from different relationships can cause cancer in different parts of the body.
         1. Hodgkin's Disease (in the lymph area) and Leukemia (in the blood) can come from deep-rooted bitterness from rejection and abandonment (literally or emotionally) by one's father.
         2. Prostrate cancer can come from anger and bitterness directed mainly at oneself, but also to some degree at others.
         3. Breast cancer can come from conflict and bitterness toward another female, and especially one's mother or sister, or another female blood relative, or another female non-blood relative, like one's mother-in-law or sister-in-law.
         4. Colon cancer can come from bitterness toward others where we slander them.
         5. Ovarian cancer can come from a woman's hatred of herself and especially her sexuality.
         6. Skin cancer usually comes from too much exposure to the sun, and lung cancer usually comes from smoking, and neither has an emotional cause or spiritual root.
   4. A healthy, properly working immune system will keep us from getting cancer.
      1. Because we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God, Psalm 139:14.
      2. If a person already has cancer, but they get their immune system healthy, it will kill all of the cancer in their body.
      3. This is why we can be healed of cancer if we get rid of all of our anger.
2. Anger Also Contributes to Heart Disease and Heart Attacks
   1. 1.5 million Americans have a heart attack each year, and 1/3 of them die from it.
      1. It is the #1 killer in America and causes nearly one half of all deaths in our country.
   2. Anger is produced in the limbic system of the brain around the brain stem. It sends a signal to the cere-bral cortex, which interprets it, and sends a signal to the hypothalamus that it is time for the body to go to war. The hypothalamus then sends out a signal to the master gland, the anterior pituitary gland, telling it to prepare for war. It in turn, sends out signals to many glands in the body to do that very thing. The hypothalamus also sends out signals to the autonomic nervous system, which makes changes to our respiratory system, digestive system, and heart.
      1. This puts a strain on the heart, which can increase it's pressure from about 120/80 to 220/130 or higher, and it's beats per minute from about 80 to 180 or higher.
      2. Dr. Vijai Sharma says, "Heart arteries can be squeezed off so hard that they choke off the supply of oxygen to the heart, which can cause the chest pains known as angina.
      3. What also contributes to heart attacks is self-rejection, self-bitterness and self-hatred, because they can cause coronary artery disease, which can cause a heart attack.
   3. Anger also causes the body to release chemicals which causes its blood to coagulate quicker, which can result in a blood clot forming in the body without any bleeding. If the clot goes to the heart, it can stop it with deadly results.
   4. Anger can also produce atrial fibrillation of the heart, aneurysms, phlebitis, hyperglycemia, varicose veins, and hemorrhoids.
3. Staying Angry Also Harms Us Emotionally and Spiritually
   1. To stay angry and not forgive is sinful.
      1. Gal. 5:19-20 says hatred and fits of rage are part of our sinful nature.
      2. James 1:20 says, "one's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires."
      3. Hebrews 12:15 says, "See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."
      4. Eph. 4:26-27, 30-5:2 tells us to not stay angry or else we are giving the devil a foothold in our life and grieving the Holy Spirit. Instead, we should get rid of all our bitterness, rage and anger. Also, we should be kind and compassionate, and forgive each other as God has forgiven us, and live a life of love like Christ loved us.
      5. We pray to God as Jesus said to in Mat. 6:12 , "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
   2. Mat. 6:14-15 says that if we do not forgive people their sins, then God will not forgive our sins.
      1. If we are a Christian, our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus and we are going to heaven.
      2. However, God will not forgive the practical consequences of our sins in this life.
         1. If we do not forgive, but stay angry, it has already been seen that it harms our body.
         2. Anger also robes us emotionally of the peace, joy, and love that God wants us to have.
         3. Anger also puts up a wall between us and God so that He does not seem as close to us.
         4. When we do not forgive, our anger causes the sins committed against us in the past to live on in our heart to our detriment, and ruins our present and future.
   3. When we forgive, it is healing and brings the good health to us that God wants.
4. Therefore, We Need to:
   1. Practice the 8 R's to healing and good health:
      1. Recognize - that staying angry is a sin.
      2. Responsibility - take, that we have it in our life.
      3. Repent - and tell God that we are wrong.
      4. Renounce - it and tell it that you do not want it in your life any more.
      5. Remove - it from your life; tell it to get out of your life in Jesus' name.
      6. Replace - it with forgiveness.
      7. Resist - it when it tries to come back into your life.
      8. Rejoice - that it is getting out of your life.
      9. Restore – others like you have been restored.
   2. Realize that forgiving is not dropping the issue, but handing it to God for what He wants to do with it and the person(s) involved. See Heb. 4:13 and Rom. 14:10,12.
   3. Search our heart and our memories, especially the traumatic ones, and go through the 9 R's for each specific incident that comes to mind. Then we will experience God's healing and good health in our life.