Out of the Depths, Part 2

Anger, in some form or another, is part of our lives. Some of us spend a lot of time angry at the world and others. Others of us spend most of our time being angry at ourselves. And some people have been so angry for so long that they aren’t even sure what they are angry about anymore. In Scripture, there are examples of those who pursued what we call righteous anger. These people get angry like the rest of us when they witness or experience perceived injustice, but they do something different with that anger.

Great Things
Phil Wickham

Firm Foundation
Cody Carnes

I Speak Jesus
Charity Gayle

Used to This
Elevation Worship

The Cry of the Soul
“Anger is a response to an assault based on the degree of perceived injustices.”

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Injustice
Any violation of God’s design for life.

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The Cry of the Soul
“Anger allows you to escape, at least momentarily, the panic of waiting and the pain of hoping.”

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Psalm 88:13-18
But I, O Lord, cry to you;in the morning my prayer comes before you. O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.

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Unrighteous Anger
A dark energy that demands for the self a more tolerable world now, instead of waiting for God’s redemption according to divine design and timing.

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You take control and force people to forfeit their freedom and succumb to your desires.

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Unrighteous Anger = taking control and forcing people to forfeit their freedom and succumb to your desires.

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James 1:20
For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

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Psalm 59:14-15
Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city. They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.

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Isaiah 8:21
They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.

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Psalm 89:14
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

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Psalm 111:7-9
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!

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Psalm 99:4
The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

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Righteous anger allows the offense to be seen as an issue between the offender and God.

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Righteous Anger = Give up control, trust God, and surrender to His desires.

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Psalm 145:8
The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

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Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge
“I used to think that wrath was unworthy of God. Isn’t God love? Shouldn’t divine love be beyond wrath? God is love, and God loves every person and every creature. That’s exactly why God is wrathful against some of them. My last resistance to the idea of God’s wrath was a casualty of the war in the former Yugoslavia, the region from which I come. According to some estimates, 200,000 people were killed and over 3,000,000 were displaced. My villages and cities were destroyed, my people shelled day in and day out, some of them brutalized beyond imagination, and I could not imagine God not being angry. Or think of Rwanda in the last decade of the past century, where 800,000 people were hacked to death in one hundred days! How did God react to the carnage? By doting on the perpetrators in a grandparently fashion? By refusing to condemn the bloodbath but instead affirming the perpetrators’ basic goodness? Wasn’t God fiercely angry with them? Though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God’s wrath, I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn’t wrathful at the sight of the world’s evil. God isn’t wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love.”

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Injustice
Any violation of God’s design for life.

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How Can I Fix My Problem?
1. Wait

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Waiting allows you to get in the right mindset.

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Isaiah 48:9
“For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.

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2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

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How Can I Fix My Problem?
2. Reflect

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Reflecting allows you to have the right motive.

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