Anger Management (3 of 3)

Anger Management (3 of 3)

There are two types of anger in this world. Worldly anger leads to sin and divine anger leads to righteousness. How do you know when anger is good and pure?

Let’s make this clear, any anger that results in your own glory is selfish and ungodly. You exist for the purpose of bringing glory to God (Isaiah 43:7). Man’s anger does not accomplish that.

Everything we do should be motivated by the desire to bring glory to God. So, the question we should always ask ourselves when anger begins to stir in us is this: “Am I being motivated by a desire to be right or by a desire to be righteous?” In other words, is this about me or is it about God?

Rarely does your anger result in righteousness. In fact, the exact opposite is generally true. Righteousness is the product of suffering and injustice. James 1:2-3 tells us that those trials produce endurance in us which helps to make us complete. It is precisely your ability to display godliness under those circumstances that creates a righteousness in you that leads others to seek out a God who gives such peace.

So, righteousness comes through suppressing your anger, not through lashing out with it. Our task, as difficult as it may be, is to put God’s glory first and display love rather than anger. This is contrary to what the world teaches us.

Proverbs 16:25

“There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

Anger is not a godly trait and it rarely brings glory to God. Do you think your anger towards someone’s righteous? Ask yourself how God feels about that same person. If you are honest, you will recognize that He has offered forgiveness for them, hasn’t He?

So, where is righteous anger now? I know where it SHOULD be... on our knees, praying for strength to love someone whom we really, really want to be angry with but who is a sinner that Christ died for.