Be angry, and do not sin.
Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
And put your trust in the LORD.
(Psalms 4:4-5)
This Psalm goes hand in hand with Solomon’s advise on watching what is in our hearts. As Christians we need to be diligent in how we allow our hearts to be. Keeping guard of one’s heart can be a difficult thing to do, yet in this World full of evil, it is something we must learn to do. So often we get so mad at the world that we lose the love of Christ and sin in our hearts. Yet, we must not allow this, we must keep our hearts in check by allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us. There is righteous indignation, and there anger that rivals pure evil. We must remember that hateful anger is not of the Spirit of God but rather it is a manifestation of evil. This we must pray for the Lord to help us develop, because while our spirit is willing, our flesh is weak.
Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Put away from you a deceitful mouth, And put perverse lips far from you.Let your eyes
look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you.
(Proverb 4:23-25)
I have said before that in order to walk circumspectly, we must walk as if we are already living in Heaven. So put your mind on that which is good, honorable, and holy, while wearing the full armor of God. Bless those while revile and hate you, for by doing so it’s like pouring hot coals upon their heads. Paul uses (Psalms 4:4-5) to emphasis his point that they should put on the new man they became in Christ which was created in them according to God, and as such to stop living in the flesh. To do so we must be of a different spirit than we were before and one way to do so is when we get angry.
“Be angry, and do not sin”
do not let the sun go down on your wrath,
nor give place to the devil(Ephesians 4:26-27)
So be angry at the evil, but hate not the evil doers. Pray for protection from the evil while praying for those who practice evil. God will reward you openly, while publicly bringing into destruction those who practice their evil in public. If you openly hate and revile those who do evil, you take a chance that GOD will rebuke you, while saving the punishment for the evil doers for a time well in the future, maybe even for judgment day. Do not be like Moses, who after 40 years of putting up with the stiff necked disbelieving Israelites, he blew a gasket by misrepresenting GOD before the people. This cost him the chance of entering the promised land. If anyone deserved to enter the promised land it was Moses. Now he did not lose his salvation, but he did miss out a huge blessing.
They angered Him also at the waters of strife, So that it went ill with Moses on account
of them; because they rebelled against His Spirit, So that he spoke rashly with his lips.
(Psalms 106:33)
And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, you rebels!
Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice
with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals. Then
the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the
children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
(Numbers 20:10-12)
We must always be cognizant of the fact that GOD knows our heart, so if you as a child of Christ practice in your heart that which evil men do in the open, then God will rebuke you. All Christians are children of GOD, and just as a father uses a rod to correct the bad behavior of his child, so too will we be chastised. Like Moses, we jeopardize losing blessings HE wants us to enjoy in this World. Thus be angry, but do not sin, love one another in spirit and in truth. Your reward may not only come on the day you are reunited with our Creator, the Lord God may openly reward you during your short time here in the World for being a good and faithful servant.
So I implore you to always remember that it is OK to be angry, but do so in a righteous way. By doing so we leave the physical, mental, and spiritual punishment up to our Father in heaven, who knows the hearts of men. When we live and walk in the spirit, then we are allowing the fruits of the Spirit to work through us. (Galatians 5:16-26)
I pray those who have ears to hear, will hear the voice of the Spirit of GOD, and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Amen
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