The Right Way to Be Angry
Exodus 11:8: " "All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you!' After that I will leave." Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh."
Moses boiled with anger - a righteous anger directed at Pharaoh's stubborn pride and the spiritual strongholds that were hindering God's purposes. God gave us this ability to argue and be angry, but He wants us to use it in the right battle against the right foe. He wants us to direct our fury into prayer, spiritual warfare, and active resistance against the devil.
We tend to get angry most often when our pride is hurt or when we're hampered in our selfish intents. And usually this anger results in sin. But anger need not be this way. God gets angry, but he never sins. He gets angry over evil, and He directs His fury at the forces that cause it.
If Christians would redirect the emotional energy we spend fighting the powers of darkness, Satan would tremble. He knows we could easily do to him what we have been doing to one another for centuries. Our united, righteous anger over evil could effect widespread change and eventually topple his entire Satanic empire. Like Moses, we must recognize that our real battle is not against flesh and blood, but "against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12).*
Food for thought: Are there relationships you've damaged because of anger? What steps can you take this week to begin healing them?
Further Reading:
Psalm 4:4: "In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent."
Ephesians 4:26: " "In you anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry."
Ephesians 6:12: "For our stuggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
James 1:19-20: "My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires."
*Sherman, Dean. Spiritual Warfare for Every Christian: How to Live in Victory and Retake the Land: YWAM Publishing, 1990.
