I want to offer you two verses in this short letter, and attempt, as the Holy Spirit leads, to coalesce them in your thoughts. The first would be Ephesians 4:26, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:”
And the second, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
Our examples of course for one would be Job, another Moses, forty years of walking, speaking to the Lord as a man face to face, only to be kept out of the promised land he had looked forward to for so long because of one mistake, one moment of anger.
“For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” (Psalm 69:9) Can you see the Lord Jesus Christ as angry as He goes into the temple with the whip He made, or do you believe He only made it to scare them, or perhaps only used it on animals?
Have you ever met a brother or sister in Christ who is in pain nearly constantly, are they always happy and joyful, or have they learned that all things happen for good and how to be angry in it at the same time? Find someone who always has a smile on their face, who never seems to be in a bad mood, who never grumbles or complains about the circumstances that the Lord has either allowed or brought into their lives and you have not met one crucified with Christ. The Almighty does not mind our questioning His will in our lives at those times of trials and tribulations, but one must use great caution, or the whirlwind as it did for Job may arrive at your doorstep. But far too many who claim Christ as Lord are better at pretending than they are at serving.
The smile on their face in the middle of the turmoil hides the truth of the anger they feel inside, for to them to be angry, especially with the Lord, is a great sin, much less to those who they claim as brothers and sisters in the Lord. These are those who cannot comprehend the symbiotic relationship between Psalm 139:21, “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?” and Matthew 5:44, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” And so the safest route for them is to feign a sense of joy even in the midst of anger.
Have you ever seen a cylinder when too much pressure is placed within it? That is where Job was at, ready to burst out what should not be said, and the mercy of the Lord was to arrive in the whirlwind right on time.
You do not have to like some of those things that the Almighty allows to enter into your life, but if you do not know how to be angry and sin not, you will only deceive yourself, you will lose your joy by trying to cover it with happiness.
I do not know what time of day it was when Paul and Silas were put into the dungeon and in the stocks, but it was not before midnight when they started to sing. Anger is a natural response that can quite easily either turn into a sin or a trap, and that trap of pretending it does not exist within you can in its own way become worse than the sin if it is expressed wrongly.
All things happen for good, that does not mean you have to feel good about them, it means you can get angry. The gift and blessing of the Lord is to show you how to be angry and sin not. You must release that anger in a way that does not sin against the Lord, or like that pressure tank, you may cause more harm than you can realize.
