The Lord replied, ‘Are you right to be angry?’
~ Jonah 4:4
This question posed by the Lord to Jonah resounds through the centuries to this day. Whenever we become angry at something, this is the exact question which our Lord asks of us.
Our first check of ourselves should always be to realize what type of anger we are experiencing. Is it righteous anger, or unrighteous anger? It is easy to identify this.
Righteous anger is anger FOR God. Only this is justifiable in God’s eyes. An example of this in scripture was Jesus’s anger at the outer temple. All other forms of anger are unrighteous anger and not justifiable.
Most of the time when we get upset, it is the same type of anger as Jonah’s — unrighteous anger. We often get angry due to our own pride. It is really as simple as that. We are upset because we do not get what we want. Anger is almost always a consequence of pride. May the Lord help us and give us compassionate hearts!
Photo by Ryan Franco on Unsplash / PD-US.