Healthy anger is not only possible but also beneficial.
No one has the power to make me mad, but they can create circumstances making the possibility greater. I get angry when I read of a
parent who drives a vehicle into the lake to kill herself and her children. I
get mad when someone steals something I’ve worked hard to get. If my boss
ignores the hard work I’ve been doing for the last ten years and gives a
promotion to some Johnny-come-lately, it frosts me. And if a doctor’s office
turns my account over to a collection agency without sending me a bill, my
anger flares.
Thinking of all the foolish things I’ve done or said because
I was angry makes me wonder why God created this emotion. After all, if my body
needs all the parts he put there, it must also need all the emotions. I’ve
learned that I can live without some body parts—a gall bladder being one of
them. As all my body parts have a particular function, so do my emotions—anger among
them.
Of all the things I could but shouldn’t get mad about,
wickedness is one. The psalmist didn’t hate the wicked but rather what resulted
from their wickedness. Jesus felt the same when he cast the merchants out of
one of the temple courts. They were cheating people and preventing foreigners
from worshiping.
The only healthy anger is that which reacts against
wickedness. As a believer, it should upset us when we see evil acts. Murder,
theft, robbery, abuse, lying, etc. How we respond to such actions is just as
important as the fact that they make us angry. Killing the unborn is
reprehensible, but murdering the doctors who perform abortions is unacceptable.
Healthy anger will propel us toward legal and godly actions. And it will stir in us the need to act. Turning our heads to wickedness won’t make it go away. Repressed anger is dangerous, but so is accepting evil without acting.
When you witness wickedness, let your anger direct you to a
godly response designed to bring about good.
Prayer: Father, guide us to healthy anger and godly responses
when we witness evil around us.
Tweetable: Are you displaying healthy anger?
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