Doest Thou Well to be Angry?

Doest thou well to be angry?

This was the question that the Lord posed to Jonah, the final chapter of the book that bears his name. In fact, the Lord posed the question to him twice within just a few verses, Jonah 4:4, 4:9. The context and the repetition of the question leads me to conclude that this was a diagnostic question designed to get Jonah to evaluate is anger and to determine whether or not it was really justifiable. That is not only a good process for the pouting prophet, but it is a good process for each and every one of us who name the name of Christ.

Unjustified Anger, and its companion bitterness, are constant issues that face Christians in the fallen world. At times, believers try to excuse their anger by pointing to the fact that the Scripture tells us that God was angry. But unlike God, we have a sinful flesh to contend with and most often our anger is not like His righteous anger. While it is true that there is a righteous indignation that Christian can and should have, most of the anger express is not of the nature, rather it is a sinful anger cloaked in the robes of religious language.

Sinful anger reveals deep and destructive problems in our life, such as, a lack of trust in God's Sovereignty. Left unchecked, sinful anger can become a detriment to the development of good and godly qualities of the Christian life.

On today's program I will look at this subject of anger from the a biblical perspective