What Makes You Angry
What makes you angry, sin against God or not getting what you want? How quickly do you get angry? And what keeps you angry? We can learn a lot about ourselves and others by what makes us angry, how quickly it happens and how long it lasts.
Psalms7:11: God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.
It is appropriate to be angry about the same things that God is angry about. But notice that He does not always punish those things immediately.
Proverbs 14:17: He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated.
We ought to put some thought into what we get angry about BEFORE we become angry.
Proverbs 22:24: Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:
Angry people like to recruit others to join them in their anger.
Proverbs 25:23: The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.
Sometimes we should look angrily at our own sin. Our angry look might reprove ourselves or others.
Proverbs 29:22: An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.
Ephesians 4:26: Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Jonah 4:9a: God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry?
Anger is not always or necessarily sinful, but it has such a tendency to run wild that whenever it displays itself, we should be quick to question its character, with this enquiry, *Doest thou well to be angry?* It may be that we can answer, *YES.* Very frequently anger is the madman*s firebrand, but sometimes it is Elijah*s fire from heaven. We do well when we are angry with sin, because of the wrong which it commits against our good and gracious God; or with ourselves because we remain so foolish after so much divine instruction; or with others when the sole cause of anger is the evil which they do. He who is not angry at transgression becomes a partaker in it. Sin is a loathsome and hateful thing, and no renewed heart can patiently endure it. God himself is angry with the wicked every day, and it is written in His Word, *Ye that love the Lord, hate evil.* Far more frequently it is to be feared that our anger is not commendable or even justifiable, and then we must answer, *NO.* Why should we be fretful with children, passionate with servants, and wrathful with companions? Is such anger honourable to our Christian profession, or glorifying to God? Is it not the old evil heart seeking to gain dominion, and should we not resist it with all the might of our newborn nature. Many professors give way to temper as though it were useless to attempt resistance; but let the believer remember that he must be a conqueror in every point, or else he cannot be crowned. If we cannot control our tempers, what has grace done for us? Some one told Mr. Jay that grace was often grafted on a crab-stump. *Yes,* said he, *but the fruit will not be crabs.* We must not make natural infirmity an excuse for sin, but we must fly to the cross and pray the Lord to crucify our tempers, and renew us in gentleness and meekness after His own image.
|