Ursula S Monroe

Yes, I believe harboring anger at anyone takes your eyes from the Lord, and places power and attention on the entity of your anger. Remember that it is Satan's intent to keep your mind preoccupied with ungodly things to cause you to stray even further!

February 24 2015 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

David Robinson Army 1SG, firefighter, consultant (CFPS) - retired from all!

There is no doubt that unwarranted or misplaced anger can be sinful. It does not necessarily follow, however, that all anger is sinful. We know for a fact it is not always sinful to be angry because we have many examples in scripture of God Himself being angry. Even Jesus demonstrated righteous anger when He cleansed the temple (Matt 21:12). I suppose He could have stood outside the temple in Jerusalem that day and whined about what was going on, or approached the sellers and traders with reasonable arguments as to why they should leave, or offered them incentives (bribes) to do what He wanted, or threatened them with sanctions if they didn’t comply. Instead, He made Himself a whip and went to work (John 2:15)! He was a passionate man of action tempered with reason and He did what needed to be done under the circumstances including violent acts motivated by righteous anger (John 2:17). Although it may disturb the sensibilities of some liberal Christians today, it is none the less a fact.

The key is whether (or not) our anger is “righteous” anger. That is, are we angry for the “right” reasons? If we are seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness as instructed by Jesus (Matt 6:33), and we see something or someone who is opposing God, His kingdom and His righteousness, we should be angry. That does not, however, give us license to sin as a result of our anger (Eph 4:26). But even if we do sin as a result of our righteous anger, it is our actions born from anger that are sinful, not the anger itself.

Therefore, it is no sin at all to be angry with Satan. He is totally opposed to God and is consumed with destroying His Kingdom. Everything he does or says is against righteousness and intended to do harm to the subjects of God’s kingdom. He is not merely the impish ice cream man on the corner tempting us with his delicious treats in hopes of getting us fat. He is that ice cream man, but he is also the despicable pedophile who will steal our children and destroy our lives. He is the cowardly mass murderer who snatches away our loved ones and commits heinous, unspeakable acts in dark places. He kills, steals and destroys (John 10:10). There is nothing good in him that we should love him or have any attraction toward him. We cannot be neutral toward him. He is the enemy, the archenemy of the One who we are committed to love and to serve. It is our Christian duty to be mad at him! We should loathe him. If we think of him, our blood should boil within us. And, it should make us smile to know that our Master has him well under control and will surely give him his just deserts in due time!

Far from diverting our attention from God, being angry with Satan actually focuses us on the things of God. There is no neutral ground; we love what God loves and we hate what God hates. Satan is the personification of everything God hates. How can someone claim to love God and then say to His primary enemy, “I’m not angry with you?” We should take great care to ensure that our misplaced antipathy toward anger does not unwittingly put us in league with the devil!

February 26 2015 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report