Misguided Motives- James 1:20 ESV

The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

The word anger in this verse can also be translated as wrath as the New King James Version does. The New King James Version translates it as the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. There is nothing positive about the wrath of man. Some think that in their wrath they are serving the Lord. That was the mindset of Saul of Tarsus when he was persecuting the early church. But when Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus he discovered otherwise.

There are people today as well who believe that if they display anger towards certain people or things that they are doing the Lord’s work. They are as mistaken as Saul was. After being confronted by Christ, Saul of Tarsus became the apostle Paul and instead of persecuting the church, he planted churches.

While we are not to embrace unrighteousness, we are not to react in an unrighteous manner thinking that we are serving God. Jesus calls us to identify unrighteousness and to peacefully confront the person. If that does not work, we are to pray for God’s intervention.

If it is not possible to confront the person about the situation, then again, we are to pray about the situation and ask God to bring about justice. As we look around at some of the things going on in our world today, we can’t help but get angry about them. But still, our responsibility is to pray and ask God to intervene.

Is there something that is disturbing you today? If there is, have you prayed about it? Have you given it to God. Once we have given a situation to God, it is in his hands to take care of, and he is much more qualified than we are to remedy any situation. Seek God in prayer today and cast your cares upon him, for he cares for you. Isn’t it nice to know that we have a God who cares for us? He really does. Trust him today.