INTRODUCTION

God is angry every day. He is angry at the same time He is love (1 John 4:8He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
See All...), and righteous (Ezra 9:15O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.
See All...), and compassionate (Psalm 86:15But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
See All...), and just (Deuteronomy 32:4He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
See All...), and merciful (Deuteronomy 4:31(For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.
See All...). The source of God’s anger and the means by which He acts upon His anger sets the standard for righteous anger. If anything that was righteous was able to provoke God to anger, it would strongly suggest a sinful nature. God, however, is provoked to anger by sin (1 Kings 16:2Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee prince over my people Israel; and thou hast walked in the way of Jeroboam, and hast made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins;
See All...), vanity (1 Kings 16:26For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities.
See All...), and idolatry (1 Kings 22:53For he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the LORD God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.
See All...). Each of these plainly declares God to be righteous in nature. The source of His anger sets forth the only sources by which men ought to become angry.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS

• (For smaller children) The Lord says there are occasions when we can be angry, but it has to be for the right reason. Consider Matthew 5:22But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
  See All...a and Ephesians 4:26Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
  See All.... The Lord always has the right reason (Matthew 21:12-13 [12] And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, [13] And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
  See All...; Psalm 78:55-58 [55] He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. [56] Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: [57] But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. [58] For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
  See All...).
• Why is God righteous in being angry with sin and with sinners? How does the fact that God can be angry plainly teach believers that anger is not sinful in and of itself?
• Have you assumed that anger is a sin? What led you to that conclusion? How has your viewpoint changed based upon the fact that God is angry?

PRAYER NEEDS

• Ask God to give you a scriptural anger.
• Ask the Lord to give you an understanding of His anger.

HYMN

Holy, Holy, Holy

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