Have you ever been around an angry person? You can be having a great conversation filled with laughter and fun—but accidentally bring up the wrong subject and this person is suddenly filled with wrath. It’s really disturbing. Or if a bank teller, store cashier, or waiter makes a mistake—and an angry person responds over the top disrupting the harmony of the entire environment.

It’s real that there is a place and time for righteous anger. We ought to be righteously angry about child sex slavery, drunken driving that takes the lives of innocent people, rogue nations attacking civilians, etc. But there is unrighteous anger that is all about us and things that may inconvenience us.

This anger doesn’t come from God. In fact, James wrote in 1:19-20 “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

And in Ephesians 4:26-27 “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we don’t get to be angry whenever we want because we have the power of God within us to harness our anger to deal with our feelings. We have a choice to respond in anger or respond with restraint and discernment. If we pause and allow the Lord to bring our thinking up a notch—we may see an opportunity for God to intervene right in that moment when someone is expecting an angry response and instead we respond in the grace and mercy of God.

We can do this because we’ve been on the receiving end of God’s grace. When we sinned, He could’ve responded with anger and punishment. But instead He gives us mercy and unmerited favor (grace). He wants us to learn from our mistakes and not just feel bad about ourselves.

Many angry people have unresolved issues in their lives so when they are let down or disappointed—they respond over the top and offend many people. There’s no excuse for a believer to be this way. God has made a way for us to escape through His Spirit. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Can’t make me angry about small stuff…

Prayer

Dear Lord, I pray that You deliver me from reacting in angry over small stuff in the big picture. Help me to pause and reflect on how You want me to respond when I’m tempted to act out my anger. In Jesus’ name, amen.

In His Service,

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