Wrestling With Faith

Is it okay for a Christian to get angry?

Ephesians 4:26-27, "In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold."

James 1: 19 My dear brothers and sister, take not of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires."

The short answer is yes a Christian can get angry.  The longer answer is how the Christian talks and acts while they are angry.  Often times in our anger we choose to do things that are sinful either because we weren't thinking or we didn't care.  This is what the Bible warns us about.  Still conducting ourselves in a godly manner even when we are mad.  James gives us some advice on how to handle our anger.  First, be quick to listen, so you can hear the whole story instead of reacting on just a part of the story.  Sometimes getting the full picture brings clarity that allows us to gain understanding and curves our anger.  Secondly, James tells us that we should be slow to speak.  In other words giving time to hear the story and to think about what the godly response should be and to ask the Holy Spirit to give us the proper words to say.  Then, James says be slow to become angry.  In other words.  Give time to think about the situation, it is worth getting angry about and how should you handle the situation that you can remain free of sin while you are angry.  The last thing that James says is do not remain angry very long.  If you remain angry for a longer period of time it gives a foothold to the devil and it leads to division among you and the other person or people.  It only leads to bitterness.  Bitterness is not of God.