Is God ever angry?

The Lord says, “Don't harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness. For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did. For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, 'They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.' So in my anger I took an oath: 'They will never enter my place of rest.' Psalm 95: 8-11 NLT

The idea of God being angry does not sit well with me.

Perhaps that is because I when I get angry, I get violently angry. Sure, you can blame my red hair but I blame my personality. That is just how I am wired. When I am angry, I often lose my perspective, my good sense, and any kind of control over what I do or say. If God gets angry, would God lose God's loving perspective? Would God lose control and forget about that little agreement with Noah? Would God lose God's good sense that God showed when Jesus died on the cross?

These are frightening thoughts.

But maybe because God is God, God is not wired like Amelia. God's anger may be righteous anger, the kind aimed at injustice and abuse. Not that I haven't acted in unjust or even abusive manners. But that God's anger is not something I might tip off. Instead, God's anger is set against those who have no regard for God or God's might. God's anger burns against those who think they are god and act like it.

God, help me to not harden my heart. May I always remember those things you have done for me. May I never refuse to do as you ask me. I want to enter your place of rest. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Copyright 2012 Amelia G. Sims