Anger

Anger is sometimes a right response.  We should be slow to anger.  But sometimes it would be wrong to not be angry.

We get angry when something we love is threatened.

If a husband finds his wife cheating with another man, his right response is anger.  He ought to be angry at this man.  And he ought to be angry at the part's of his wife's heart that would allow this to happen.

Again, we get angry when something we love is threatened.

Therefore, examining the times in which we are most angry or aggravated or upset will lead us to understand our own hearts.  It will help us pinpoint the things we love, the things we devote ourselves to, the things we live for.

Do you live for your reputation?  If someone or something threatens your reputation, do you get angry?

Do you live for your family?  When they are threatened, do you get angry?

Do you live for your own perfect life?  When it is interrupted or marred, do you get angry?  Are you most angry when your life seems out of your control?

Do you live for God?  Are you angered when he is dishonored?

Our greatest love ought to be for God.  And therefore our greatest anger ought to be towards that which dishonors God.  Just as God is angry at sin, we ought to be angry at sin. 

The person whose sin we should be most angry about is our own.  It is the sin we know best, from the inside out.  It is the sin that we can do something about.

Again, we should be most angry towards our own sinfulness.  We are the wife who is sleeping around.  God should be angry at the idols that enslave us, and one day they will all be destroyed.  But he should also be angry at the disease that is in us, that latches on to the idols.  He loves us.  He loves us so much.  He loves us enough to want us well, to want us to be rid of the disease of sin. 

Are you more angry at those who are threatening your idols than you are at the sin within that threatens your relationship with God? 

It is such good news to know that God's righteous anger toward all your sin has be spent at the cross, poured out upon Jesus, that we might experience the favor and blessing we don't deserve by trusting in Jesus.  Jesus endured the Father's anger on our behalf.  The wrath absorbed on the cross ought to make us quick to forgive, slow to anger ourselves.

I hope this has been helpful.  Soli Deo gloria!