When we think about anger, we often think about anger towards another person. A conflict. A hurt. But there’s another kind of anger: righteous anger. This is the kind of anger where we’re angry at what makes God angry. It’s anger against injustice, suffering, cruelty and oppression. We can often get angry in a selfish way. We get angry at things that affect us, when we feel we’ve been treated badly or when things don’t seem to be working out how we’d thought they would. Jonah became angry when the tree he was using as shelter died. In fact, he became so angry that he didn’t see the point of carrying on. ‘God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”…How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night’ (Jonah 4:9-11 MSG). When we move away from becoming angry about things that affect us and start being angry about things that affect others, we move into righteous anger. This kind of anger stirs us into action. We begin to pray for others and ask God to create change. We get involved with social action and campaigning for people’s rights. We start to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. This kind of anger is anger we should be feeling and responding to. Are we prepared to be people who move away from being focused on our own needs and focus on the needs of others?

What now?
Ask God to show you if there’s anything about that situation that you could use as a catalyst for good. For example, if your anger was because someone was unfair to you, see if there’s anything you can do to help people who are being bullied or persecuted.