Look closely at any day and we can usually find anger in both our actions and attitudes. Things spill or go missing, we get stuck in traffic, and the people we live and work with often make life even harder. We want to stay calm, but what do you do when you feel your blood pressure rise yet again?
Anger is so common—yet it also destroys. It leaves its mark on us—it’s not healthy which is one reason we hear so much about finding peace. And it leaves its mark on others. The wounds we inflict on others when we are angry—the loss of intimacy, trust, security, and enjoyment in our closest relationships—give us compelling reasons to look closely at our anger and think carefully about how to grow in patience and peace.
If you have just gotten irritated for the umpteenth time today, you might wonder if change is possible. Can anyone grow in patience and peace? Yes. But you need a plan. Biblical counselor and psychologist Ed Welch invites readers to take a 50-day journey that unpacks anger and encourages readers to become more skillful at responding with patience to life’s difficulties. Along the way, readers will be introduced to Jesus, the Prince of Peace—the only one who can empower his people to grow in patience, peace, and wholeness.
Features of the book:
- Short meditations unpack the underlying causes of irritation and frustration and encourage readers to look carefully at how their anger affects them and others.
- 50-day reading plan gives ample time for readers to make and implement a plan that will help them to grow in patience and peace.
- Christ-centered meditations that give readers hope that change is not based on their efforts but on the person and work of Jesus and his indwelling Spirit. Author Edward T. Welch, MDiv, PhD, is a licensed psychologist
- A useful tool for pastors, counselors, and lay helpers as they talk with people who see the effects of their anger on themselves and others and don’t know how to change.
Praise for A Small Book about a Big Problem:
Sinclair B. Ferguson, Teaching Fellow, Ligonier Ministries:
Ed Welch masterfully combines biblical analysis and a lifetime of counseling experience with a gentle exposing of our true condition—and then prescribes gospel medicine. Complete the course! At first it may not taste good. But it offers the hope of long-term spiritual health.
Paul Tripp, Author of New Morning Mercies:
As a young pastor, anger nearly destroyed my family and my ministry. By grace God rescued me. My hope is that this book, filled with profound insights, tender grace, and practical wisdom, will be used by God to rescue and restore many. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from reading it.
John Frame, Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology and Philosophy, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, FL:
Often when we are angry, we don’t have the patience to listen to a lecture or treatise. Thankfully, Ed Welch’s book provides biblical teaching about anger in powerful, eloquent, short segments. Right to the point; right to our hearts.
Paul Miller, Founder of seeJesus; author of A Praying Life and A Loving Life:
What a rich, insightful book! Ed’s years of working with the heart come to life in these short, piercing vignettes. They aren’t so much devotional as they are disrupters. They will disrupt your heart for good. No matter where you are in the Christian life, you will find yourself arrested by this book. I’m getting one for each of our children.