Get angry!

A person who cannot or who will not get angry is not likely to accomplish much with his life. Anger is a powerful motivator that brings about change. Oswald Chambers, in his book Spiritual Leadership, observes this. “Holy anger has its roots in genuine love. Both are part of the nature of God.” Jesus, the Son of God, felt anger and the Gospel writers recorded it for us. As he went to the tomb of his friend Lazarus, John tells us that he was ‘deeply moved’ (NIV) over the pain that sin and death brought. What he felt was anger! The Greek text (original language of the NT) there is a word that means ‘to rise up in anger!’ Mark tells us about His encounter with religious leaders who did not want Him to heal a man with a crippled hand because it was the Sabbath. "He looked them in the eye, one after another, angry now, furious at their hard-nosed religion. He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out—it was as good as new!" (Mark 3:5, The Message)

If we love God, we will hate sin and what it does to others. We will get angry at those who oppress and exploit others. We will get angry at ourselves when we allow sin to be our master; angry enough to pursue holiness and transformation. Anger gets us up off our comfortable couch and causes us to sacrifice resources and safety to defend the weak, lift up the downtrodden, oppose those who do the work of the Devil! Passion describes both love and anger. Let’s pray for real passion to be part of our lives.

We must overcome the apathy that is so characteristic of so many American Christians who are emotionally obese, overfed by too much pleasure. Many expend all their emotional anger by talking back at their TV, or letting anger be wasted on frivolous causes! Pray that God, the Holy Spirit, will disturb you with the suffering that sin brings on this world and then that the anger rising in you will move you to leave safety and security behind and do something costly and effective for change.

Anger is, like any emotion, dangerous. Anger that is given free rein is like fire that spills out of the furnace. It will burn down our house, consuming us, turning us into fools. We need to reject any anger that arises out of our own sense of offense or that moves us in the direction of revenge. The Word reminds us “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry." (Ephesians 4:26, NLT)
Do you care enough for your brother to take up his cause?
Do you care enough for your sister to rise up to defend her?

"God is my shield, saving those whose hearts are true and right. God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day." (Psalm 7:10-11, NLT)
"I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High." (Psalm 7:17, NLT)

_________________

Father, I come to you to repent
Not for sins I committed, but for
Failing to do the things I should!

Help me to love beyond words,
To care enough to get angry,
To focus that anger on righteous causes,
And to pray, work, and give to make a change!

Holy Spirit, I am suspicious of anger
Because so often it is used selfishly,
Abused in the service of Self, and
Cruel in expression.

Give me a holy passion for those things
That matter deeply to You, and let me understand
The place of anger among the emotions You have
Given to me.
Jesus, move me to work like You did
For the least, the lost, the lonely –
That they might come to know ‘life more abundant’
Like I enjoy in You.
I pray this in your holy Name. Amen!