Anatomy of Anger

As I see it, there are two kinds of anger. One stems from hurt and the other stems from pride. Anger from hurt is righteous anger. Anger from pride is sin.

The anger Jesus demonstrated in the temple is the first. The anger I demonstrate most often toward God is the second, even though a cursory glance would falsely surmise it was the first.

To think that I could never do what my hearts longs for so much, hurts. I know that we see dimly on earth and that God brings Himself glory through my sacrifice and struggle. And I get angry at God. Angry because I feel this pain and it’s for His glory. Angry because I feel used. I get angry at God because of my humanity.

Humanity is self preserving. At my core, in my nature, is a sense of protecting myself from being used and hurt and exploited. Wrapped up in that is the belief that I deserve good not bad and I won’t take anything but good – I won’t take it lying down.

Don’t you see? It’s pride. God is the only one who deserves Glory. Because He is good and we are not. We do not deserve glory. It is a false sense deep in us that riles up against the thought of being used as His glorifying tool when it hurts because of our pride, our belief that we deserve some of that glory too.

We are not told to self preserve – we are told to die. And that’s what salvation is.

Salvation is the antithesis of self preservation. The false self. The self separate from God.

Salvation is the ultimate act of self preservation. The real self. The self in God.

We let go of pride. This is where our anger stems from. We let go of self. We give it to God. To use, to save, to bring Himself glory. This is right, for HE is good.