31 Days of Devotion, Day 30 by James Griffin

Daily Reading: James 1: 19-27

Have you noticed lately that people are angry? Scroll through social media or turn on your favorite news channel, and chances are someone is raging about something. That anger doesn’t only live outside of us, though. It lives inside of us, too. We lose it in traffic, snap at our kids, yell at the bad call in the game, start petty fights with our spouse, get passive-aggressive with our coworkers, and go off on the neighborhood Facebook page.

The truth is that anger can be a good thing when directed at the right things in the right way.

In John 2, Jesus got angry and cleansed the temple because God was being dishonored and powerless people were being hurt. That’s called righteous anger. It’s anger that seeks to please God and protect others.

Be honest. Is that why you get angry, or do you get angry because you feel dishonored and hurt?

James writes that we should “be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19). When pride motivates our anger, we fall short of imitating Christ, and the people in our lives suffer for it. Our anger doesn’t produce righteousness in them or in us. To avoid this, we must listen more than we talk. We put away evil, obey the word of God, fight for suffering people, and live lives set apart from the world. This is pure religion, and it’s only possible by the grace of God. If there’s anger in your heart today, ask for the grace you need to redirect it toward things worth truly getting angry over.

Daily Prayer
Dear Lord, help me avoid anger out of pride. Move me toward a place where I listen more than I talk. Move me to a place where I stand up for the broken-hearted. Give me the strength to fight for the suffering people of Liberia. Amen.