The Bible speaks of righteous anger, which is anger against all sin and everything that offends God. Abuse and injustice of all kinds make me angry. I get angry at the devil when I see children starving in India, Asia, Africa and other places I have traveled to for mission outreaches.
Even God has righteous anger! God got angry when He saw the hardness of His people’s hearts. Thankfully, His anger is for a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime. Even though God is slow to anger, I am sure there are many injustice in this world that do make Him angry. I am certainly glad He manages His emotions, aren’t you?
Although righteous anger is not a sin, what we do with it can become sin. I am very angry at the devil, but I have discovered that the only way to get him back for the evil he does is by doing good myself. Good is the one thing that Satan, the personification of evil, cannot stand. I always say, “If you want to give the devil a nervous breakdown, just get up every day and see how much you can do.”
Uncontrolled anger, even righteous anger, can quickly turn into rage, and that is dangerous. For example, people who are angry concerning abortion laws, or prayer being taken out of school, or the loss of Christian rights that is prevalent today feel righteous anger, but even that can be displayed improperly. We are all aware of Christians who have done great harm to others because of uncontrolled rage over an injustice. But remember, we are to speak the truth in love, not in rage. That doesn’t mean we can’t be strong as we speak out against injustice, but any lack of control will only open a door for the devil - and this is particularly true when it comes to anger. We must remeber -and obey - what the Bible says: “Don’t let the sun set on your anger!”
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