If I wasn’t a Christian already, I might think God was angry. A lot. And all the time.

Gleaning from a lot of things I’d read as an “unbeliever” scripted by “believers,” I’d say God uses catastrophic weather to judge nations, car bombs to get Christians to pray, and elected politicians to bring humanity what they deserve. And why not? I mean, Biblical passages like this clearly portray God as having anger issues:

“For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.” Isaiah 9:21b

So let me put the Christian hat back on. Scripture is clear, God gets angry. But the question worth addressing to myself as a Believer, and to those currently outside of the Christian faith, is not what causes God to get angry (everything from unrighteousness to disobedience; see Deuteronomy 11:17; 29:24-28; Ezra 8:22; Nehemiah 13:18 just for starters), but what God’s anger provokes in terms of action.

The reality is, when God got angry, he sent his son Jesus to pay the price for everything humanity ever did to “rouse his anger” in the first place. Let me simplify:

When God gets angry, he displays ultimate mercy.

Huh. Doesn’t sound quite like the God we Christians portray so very well in modern society.

And me? I get angry and do what? I get ticked off at a politician and what comes out of my mouth? An employee disobeys me and I treat them how? I watch a whole nation embrace a system of belief that enslaves people and I pray in what manner for their persecutors? I see someone willfully reject Christ, and I think what of them?

I challenge you to think less of what provokes God to anger and more of what anger provokes God to do.

It might just change the way you perceive a Heavenly Father who is actually good all the time with mercy that endures forever. (At least, that’s what the Bible claims about him). ch:

Q: Be honest. How do you respond when you get angry? And where do you need to improve? Have you been looking at God’s character improperly?