When Anger Is Good

Many people feel uneasy about the emotion of anger. It feels uncomfortable and may cause change. However, there is a good time and place for anger.

God is angry at sin, and this is good. Sin in itself is the opposite of love and life. Sin is what we dread when we see it clearly, and it's good that God is against it. Being in Christ allows us to still be in relationship with God even though we are sinners saved by grace.

Like God's anger at sin, a person may become angry when someone or something that's beautiful to him or her is threatened. Anger could be a form of wanting to protect, and this is a good type of anger. It indicates that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. It is love for someone or something that makes us feel very strongly that we want to protect the person or thing.

Anger is good if it involves love or is in line with wanting what God wants.

Often anger goes wrong because it's anger due to pride. An example of bad anger is someone being angry that a friend has decided to not go to an event they're planning because of being sick. This friend who is sick is making the right choice to try to heal. The angry person is not being right because the wellbeing of their friend should be more important than their event being more full of people. It's loving to want a friend to heal. It's prideful to want a friend to suffer in order to look good.

Pride often is what makes anger bad. But it's not to be confused with standing up for one's rights. It's okay to be angry if someone is treating you badly if truly you should be treated better in the situation. It's right to want to flourish and do well--God wants that too (although sometimes we don't agree with God on what that looks like exactly) and if someone is intentionally harming that, it's good to feel very strongly that something is wrong and should be changed if possible.

Honest Prayer

One striking feature of prayer in the bible is how honest people are with God. When God spoke to his prophets his prophets said some things that were in the eyes of modern Christians eyes strikingly disrespectful to God.

The men of the bible were often upset with God and argued with him. Were they in the right?

Often there is little commentary on the narrative, but I think they were right in this that they were having a real conversation with God.

Our modern theology often wants to prettify prayer. We should be respectful in the presence of God.

I suppose that is true in its own way but you see I am not sure how coming to God and hiding our feelings is respectful.

There is always a balance: we are coming by prayer to speak to God. But we are coming by prayer to bring our hearts to God.

It is not as if God does not know how we feel. I suppose I sometimes feel that a person might go to a Christian or secular counselor and unload their feelings but they cannot do so to God?

We can tell a counselor we are angry but we must be careful if we tell God this? It does not make sense to me. God is bigger and tougher and had more character than the counselor and he already knows how we feel.

So always prayer needs honesty. Sometimes I have found if I simply tell God how angry I am and also admit I am probably in some sense wrong but angry all the same.

It is helpful sometimes to simply express our feelings. It is as if the expression helps to bring about the resolution by placing perspective.

You see God already knows I am angry about this or that. I can come into his presence and with prayer and try to pretend I am not angry but that is very silly in its own way.

You see prayer is a conversation. It is somewhat one sided since we are doing all the talking to God.

Of course God is also talking as he speaks through his recorded words and through the Holy Spirit in our hearts and through the voices of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

An Honesty in Prayer

Prayer in the church often follows a formula. We it at times has a superficiality.

In a sense it is too theological and too pristine. I suppose there is nothing wrong with a theological and pristine prayer in the church, but I hope that in personal prayer lives prayer is not of this nature.

You see prayer is us talking to our father in heaven God. We do not need to remind him of theology or what we know. We need to speak freely to him.

Often our lives are a mess and it is important to say what we feel not what we feel we are supposed to say.

In relationships there must always be honesty. In the end God is right and we are often wrong but we need to be honest how we feel even if we admit it is wrong.

In life people may often go to a counselor to say what they feel. You see we should treat God in this way at some times as one who is there to listen.

It always seems more important that we tell God what we feel in prayer rather than to worry if our prayer is theologically acceptable or not. You see God will worry about how to respond but it is important that we say what we feel.

We act at times like God cannot handle our emotion or anger at things. As if we can hind our true feelings and heart and if we don’t express the feelings in prayer he will not know the feelings exist.

You see he already knows how we feel but it is of great help to express the feelings. In the psalms often the prayers are far more “woolly and rugged” than we see in the church. The reason is the prayers are truthful.

Often the modern prayers in the church replace theology with truth. Really it misses the point the prayer is a conversation and not an extension of the sermon or teaching tool.