[New Life New Way] AngerSmakprov

Healthy Anger

There is a good, righteous anger that we may not expect to find in the Bible, yet it is there. It is OK to get angry sometimes. We are talking about good, healthy anger. Anger that concerns God’s purposes, not our preferences. We should get angry about sin in our world. We should be angry about things done wrong, but not treat people poorly because of it. We should get angry about poverty, about people not having enough food to eat, and then do something about it.

Jesus was angry several times during His life on earth. He got angry when He saw injustices, He got mad at sin, He got mad when things were done wrong. But His was righteous anger. And He always did something right to correct whatever was wrong that made Him angry.

Author and theologian Lewis Smedes wrote: “Healthy anger drives us to do something to change what makes us angry; anger can energize us to make things better. Hate . . . wants to make things worse.” Whenever we feel healthy anger about something being done wrong, we feel the need to do something to make it right; we feel a need to bring change into a situation that is making us feel that way. We should get angry about things that need to change.

Healthy, righteous anger should be a reflection of God and God’s Holiness, like the anger we see in Exodus 32 when Moses comes down from the mountain and sees Israel committing sin, worshiping idols made of gold. Moses got really angry! He was not angry at the people, but at what they were doing. He felt angry because they were sinning against God and everything God had told them to do. He pleaded for the people of Israel before God, asking God to forgive them, despite being angry at what they were doing. That is how healthy, good, righteous anger works. We do not take our anger out on people, lashing out against everyone, treating them poorly; we go against what is wrong, and try to make it right. That is the kind of anger that causes good, heavenly change.

Thought Of The Day: May we always find a way to use our healthy anger to bring heavenly change to the world around us.